Members of the US Navy will parade through the streets of the national capital later this month in a historic freedom of entry ceremony to mark the commissioning of Littoral Combat Ship USS Canberra.
Canberra will be the first US Navy warship to be commissioned in an allied country. It is the second US Navy ship to bear the namesake of Canberra.
While the official commissioning of the vessel will be in Sydney on July 22, members of the US combat ship's company will travel to Canberra to parade through the streets a day later where, as is traditional practice, they will be formally "challenged" on the street by Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan and uniformed members of ACT police, before being granted freedom of entry.
Australian Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said this event "encapsulated both the depth of the historical ties and modern day partnership between the Royal Australian Navy and the US Navy".
"It is an opportunity to reflect on our shared history, and on a friendship forged while fighting side-by-side," he said.
"On August 9, 1942 the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was severely damaged off Guadalcanal [Solomon Islands] while protecting US Marines fighting ashore.
"In a surprise attack by a powerful Japanese naval force, Canberra was hit 24 times in less than two minutes and 84 of her crew were killed including Captain Frank Getting."
Freedom of entry dates back to medieval times when cities had to defend themselves from incursions by outlaw bands and attacks by feudal lords. Those cities refused to allow entry to troops unless they were absolutely sure that those arms would not be used against them. Ceremonial freedom of entry was the agreed way.
It will be a rare and colourful event in the ACT. The previous time such a parade was held was in 2019 when the ship's company of the RAN flagship, HMAS Canberra, exercised their right to freedom of entry into the city of Canberra.
On that occasion, more than 300 officers, sailors, soldiers and airmen from HMAS Canberra marched from Glebe Park to the ACT Legislative Assembly.
The new USS Canberra is the latest of the US Navy's Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) built by Australian company Austal which constructs the vessels in Mobile, Alabama, on the Mobile River approximately 28km from the Gulf of Mexico.
Austal have built 15 of these vessels for the US Navy, with four more under construction.
With a top speed of 40 knots, the USS Canberra is described as a "fast, maneuverable and networked surface vessel". It is 127 metres long, has a huge rear flight deck and carries two MH-60 helicopters. It has a trimaran-type hull with a shallow 4.5 metre draft, which allows it to operate close to shore.
The commissioning and the parade will coincide with the start of Operation Talisman Sabre, a huge multi-national military exercise which will occur primarily at the Shoalwater Bay training area, near Rockhampton.
The Defence department has described it as "the largest-ever iteration of the exercise" involving "more than a dozen partner nations and more than 30,000 personnel".
Talisman Sabre has been held every two years since 2003, and is designed to test Australian interoperability with the United States and other participating forces in "complex warfighting scenarios". The previous operation, held in 2021, involved forces from Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
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