– USNI News – The Navy sent the ships to sea ahead of the storm’s landfall last week, in order to be able to quickly assist with recovery efforts. The ships can provide medical support, security, logistic support, medium and heavy lift air support, and can assist state and federal agencies assessing damage. Before the Navy can provide assistance, a formal request must be made by state and federal officials.

– USNI News – Amphibious warships USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) are positioned to support hurricane relief efforts, if civilian authorities make a request for assistance.

– USNI News – Amphibious warships USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) are set to set sail on Thursday under orders Wednesday from Adm. Phil Davidson, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, to provide humanitarian aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

– USNI News – The Navy is preparing USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) to assist ongoing recovery efforts in the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast region following Hurricane Harvey.

– USNI News – Marines and sailors from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD-48) returned to Saipan in the Northern Marianas with heavy equipment to restore power and water purifiers to provide as much as 40,000 gallons of drinking water after the island was devastated by a typhoon last week..

– USNI News – Amphibious warship USS Ashland (LSD-48) and elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are bound for Saipan — at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — to assist in disaster relief following the devastating landfall of Typhoon Soudelor last week.

– BBC – About 100 US marines, two helicopters and four Ospreys capable of vertical take-off are now in Kathmandu.

– War is Boing – The Chinese navy’s giant hospital ship Peace Ark has begun search-and-rescue operations in The Philippines, some three weeks after one of history’s biggest recorded typhoons smashed into the archipelago nation and killed thousands of people. Meanwhile America’s own Pacific Ocean hospital ship, the much larger Mercy, remains in port in California—Washington having determined that, nearly a month after the storm, Manila no longer needs the vessel’s expansive, cutting-edge facilities.

– BBC – When the decision was taken to deploy HMS Illustrious to the Philippines it was patrolling for pirates off the coast of Somalia.

– War is Boring – Controversial tiltrotors revamping their reputation in The Philippines.

– BBC – British warship HMS Daring has docked in the Philippines to help the UK’s emergency response to Typhoon Haiyan.

– War is Boring – On Nov. 13, 2013, the U.S. Pacific Fleet activated the San Diego-based USNS Mercy, one of America’s two giant hospital ships, to help out in The Philippines after the archipelago nation was devastated by one of history’s biggest recorded storms. Mercy’s deployment is part of wider humanitarian strategy.

– War is Boring – How will the U.S. help, though? Here’s a primer, based on announced deployments and previous disaster relief efforts.

– USNI News – The Navy is activating the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) to the Philippines as part of the ongoing U.S. disaster effort following Super Typhoon Haiyan. If ordered to deploy, Mercy would get underway in the next several days and could arrive in the Philippines sometime in December.

– BBC – The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious will be sent to help people affected by the typhoon in the Philippines. HMS Illustrious is currently in the Gulf and is expected to arrive in the Philippines on 24 November. The carrier will relieve destroyer HMS Daring, which is already on its way and should arrive on Saturday.

– BBC – A US aircraft carrier and its escort of two cruisers have arrived off the Philippines coast to help communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.

– USNI News – The U.S. Navy is preparing two amphibious warships to join the disaster relief effort in the Philippines. USS Germantown (LSD-42) and USS Ashland (LSD-48) will shortly depart from Naval Station Sasebo, Japan and will arrive sometime next week.

– Reuters – The USS George Washington and HMS Daring are on their way to the Philippines to assist.

– US Naval War College Review – In September 1994, the Caribbean nation of Haiti burst into political unrest that drove twenty-six thousand migrants out to sea on board overcrowded and unseaworthy craft in an unprecedented mass migration to the United States. Several months later, over thirty thousand Cubans followed suit, attempting to reach the mainland on literally anything that could float. On 31 August 2005, a “weapon of mass destruction” in the form of a category-five hurricane exploded in the Gulf coast city of New Orleans, killing over 1,300 citizens and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands. Finally, on 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploratory oil rig exploded, heralding an unprecedented environmental disaster whose final impact has yet to be determined. What these events shared, with their catastrophic nature and international impact, was a link to the sea. Although vastly different in cause, circumstances, and scope—ranging as they did from a man-made political event to recovery from the wrath of nature—these crises all saw a significant application of sea power in reaction and recovery operations.

– US Naval War College Review – Foreign humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief (FHA/DR) operations are some of the most complicated operations conducted by the military. These missions constitute a core Navy mission; their planning and execution differ from those of a kinetic military campaign, but addressing the key principles early will enable the successful execution. The following lessons learned are based on the author’s experiences over the past two years conducting five FHA/DR operations in the western Pacific.

– Washington Post – General Anthony Zinni says that “No one argues that planning for wars makes them more likely. Yet this seems to be the underlying reason for the military’s allergy to planning for civilian protection. U.S. armed forces should start treating civilian protection missions as seriously as they take wars. It’s only prudent to study mass-atrocity response operations, plan for them and, perhaps most important, conduct exercises with the civilian leaders who would make decisions about potential interventions.”

– Associated Press – U.S. Marines were aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Carribean Friday preparing to help take relief supplies to Haiti, as Hurricane Tomas battered the small, impoverished country.