Alone at Sea aboard Kearsarge

"It’s unusual for one of the Navy’s capital ships to go it alone. Aircraft carriers and amphibious ships usually sail in the company of at least a destroyer –- and often with multiple destroyers, cruisers and frigates that screen them from potential attackers. But on her four-month mission to South America, USS Kearsarge is sailing all alone.
Is her skipper worried? “In our region, we feel pretty secure,” Captain Walter Towns tells DANGER ROOM. Besides, he adds, “the ship has an awesome self-defense suite -– 40 millimeter [guns], .50-caliber [guns] -– so we’re designed for self protection.” Not to mention Kearsarge sports sets of both Rolling Airframe Missile launchers and Phalanx guns plus Navy H-60 choppers that can be fitted with their own guns."
War is Boring