USS Blue Ridge, USS Ashland conduct group sail with RAN, AFP in Sulu Sea

From left: Royal Australian Navy Anzac-class frigate HMAS Toowoomba (FF 156); a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon, assigned to Patrol Squadron (VP) 47; U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19); an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to HMAS Toowoomba; Philippine Coast Guard Boracay-class patrol boat BRP Boracay (FPB-2401); and U.S. Navy Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) conduct a group sail during a multilateral exercise with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Royal Australian Navy in the Sulu Sea, April 13, 2026. U.S. 7th Fleet, the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Nicholas Douglass)