The expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4) will be replaced by USNS Brunswick as the secondary mission platform for the 2018 Pacific Partnership mission due to emerging maintenance requirements.
The replacement of ships comes after a pre-deployment inspection on USNS Fall River revealed a need for additional maintenance and repairs. The maintenance for Fall River will exceed the time required for Pacific Partnership personnel to arrive at their initial mission stops. Fall River and Brunswick are both spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport ships. The ship replacement will not impact the Pacific Partnership mission.
Brunswick is scheduled to depart from Guam with embarked mission personnel in mid-March destined for initial stops in Yap and Palau. Fall River’s repairs will be expedited and the ship is scheduled to return to operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet in the near future.