05/15/2016: Time Lapse footage of the USNS MILLINOCKET (T-EPF-3)as they arrive in Subic Bay,Philippines in order to participate in Balikatan 2016 (BK 16) on March 30, 2016.
The purpose of BK 16 is to strengthen interoperability and partner-nation capabilities for the planning and execution of military operations, and advance regional security operations.
Credit: U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific:3/30/16
USNS Millinocket (T-EPF-3), (formerly JHSV-3), (ex-Fortitude) is the third Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport, which is part of the United States Military Sealift Command and was built in Mobile, Alabama.
On 30 May 2012, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced in Fall River, Massachusetts that the third Expeditionary Fast Transport, previously having been named Fortitude by the United States Army before the transfer of the EPF program to the Navy, would be named USNS Millinocket.
Since the ship will be operated by the Military Sealift Command and not the United States Navy itself, it will carry the USNS designation and not USS. The ship is the second U.S. Navy vessel to be named Millinocket, the first being a freighter sunk by a U-boat in 1942.