USNS Matthew Perry, a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship of the U.S. Navy, has finished maintenance and repair work at Larsen & Toubro Ltd’s facility in Kattupalli near Chennai, also known as L&T shipyard, from March 11 to 27, 2023. USNS Matthew Perry is the second U.S. Navy ship to finish maintenance work in India. In August 2022, USNS Charles Drew finished voyage repair at L&T shipyard. The larger scope of work on the Matthew Perry shows that the U.S. Navy wants to work toward the point where Indian shipyards can regularly do a wider range of repairs on ships.
The USNS Matthew Perry’s visit shows that the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense are serious about using repair facilities in India. In April 2022, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they wanted to do this at the U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in Washington, D.C.
“The United States is a proud Indo-Pacific nation, and our vital interests are inextricably tied to the region,” said Judith Ravin, the US Consul General in Chennai. India is an important ally of the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific region. I’m sure that keeping and fixing up the USNS Matthew Perry in India will make our relationship even stronger. Our shipping industries contribute to a free and open Indo-Pacific by working together to fix military ships in a way that is effective, efficient, and affordable.
The USNS Matthew Perry has a length of 210 meters, a width of 32.3 meters, and a registered tonnage of 35,300T. It was named after Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry (1794-1858), who led a fleet of ships to Japan in 1853 to open the country to trade. He was in the military during the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. He was sent to the West Indies to stop piracy and the slave trade.
