Carrier returns to test missiles

The 600-foot decommissioned Navy helicopter carrier USS Tripoli will be back in island waters this month and will again become a floating platform that will launch Scud-type missiles as part of the ongoing high-altitude ballistic intercept missile tests off Kauai.

USS Tripoli » Commissioned: Aug. 6, 1966 » Decommissioned: Sept. 15, 1995 » Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, Miss. » Length: 603 feet » Displacement: About 19,500 tons fully loaded Source: U.S. Navy

The Vietnam-era amphibious assault ship left Mare Island near San Francisco under tow on May 1, Missile Agency spokesman Chris Taylor said. "It will support flight tests later this summer," Taylor added.

The Tripoli, which was decommissioned in 1995, had been moored for several months at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California, Taylor said.

While in the islands, the Tripoli, which was put into service in 1966, will be used as a mobile launch platform -- the same role it played last year.

The fifth Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, the Tripoli fired a Scud-like missile on Oct. 27 during a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense test several miles off Kauai's Barking Sands beaches. An interceptor missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility successfully hit Tripoli's target missile.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Tripoli struck a mine off the coast of Iraq. The blast ripped open a 16-foot hole below the waterline, but the ship was repaired and returned to duty. It later sailed to Somalia in 1992 to land Marines in Mogadishu as part of Operation Restore Hope.

The Missile Defense Agency leases the Tripoli from the Naval Air Systems Command, Taylor said.

Adm. Robert Willard, head of U.S. Pacific Fleet, commanded the Tripoli from September 1994 to June 1995.

CORRECTION Thursday, May 8, 2008 The Navy helicopter carrier USS Tripoli left Mare Island near San Francisco under tow on May 1. This article originally said it left on Wednesday.