The US Navy last month sold the USS Trenton (LPD-14) to the Indian Navy. The sale never got press here, but it's a big deal in India and contributes to the growing relationship between the two largest democracies.
The Trenton, an "amphibious transport dock" (for troop movements and landings) was launched in 1968 and commissioned in 1971. Her long service life -- East Coast to West Indies routine missions, multi-nation exercises in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean, Kiel Week naval celebrations in Europe and civilian evacuations during crises in Cyprus in 1974 and Lebanon in 2006 -- was varied, useful and honorable.
The Trenton was scheduled for decommissioning in late 2006, but the Indian Government initiated purchase negotiations. The transaction was completed in January 2007; renamed the INS Jalashva (river horse), the vessel will be refitted and her new crew trained in Norfolk, until her May departure for her new home base in India.
Why so little press in this country? Congress was working on the US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. Enactment was important to both nations, and some worried that sale of the Trenton could be a useful red-herring for its opponents. Now the Indo-US nuclear bill is law and the Indian Navy has a new ship (for which the US Government received $48.44 million); good results for all concerned and good for a growing strategic relationship.