U.S. Navy Picks a Full-Size Amphib for High-Profile Sinking Exercise

The biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise is the largest naval exercise in the world, and every edition includes a capstone "sinking exercise" targeting a decommissioned U.S. Navy warship. This year it will be an unusually substantial target: the former USS Tarawa, a full-size amphibious assault vessel. 

USS Tarawa - named for the costly Battle of Tarawa in World War II, a touchstone of Marine Corps history - was commissioned in 1976 and decommissioned in 2009. She was the first in a class of five amphibs...