The United States Navy Seventh Fleet flagship, USS Blue Ridge, made a routine call at Westport here today.

The command-and-control ship, one of only two in the US Navy, docked at the port about 9.30am and will remain berthed for four days.

The ship, forward deployed at Yokosuka, Japan, operates as the Seventh Fleet commander's base at sea and at anyone time has 1,000 sailors, US Marine Corps soldiers and Seventh Fleet Command staff onboard during operations at sea.

Its commanding officer, Captain J. Stephen Maynard, said the ships crew would be given liberty to "see the sights", adding that tours were being conducted for the sailors to Kuala Lumpur and other areas. Among official activities for the crew are a reception tonight onboard the ship for local dignitaries, some charity work with Rotary Club Kuala Lumpur and a performance by the Seventh Fleet band at KLCC on Thursday.

Commissioned on Nov 14, 1970 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and named for the Blue Ridge mountains in the US, the Blue Ridge became Seventh Fleet flagship on Oct 5, 1979.

Measuring 194 metres long, with a displacement of 19,000 tonnes, the ship features a wide array of communications equipment and two SH-3G Sikorsky Sea King helicopters onboard, including one placed at the disposal of the Seventh Fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Robert Willard.

Apart from being the command ship for the Seventh Fleet, the Blue Ridge also serves as the command ship for the fleet's Amphibious Task Force and Landing Force Commanders.

It can attain a speed of 23 knots and is protected by two 20mm Phalanx guns and several 50 calibre and 25mm guns forward and aft of the ship.

The Blue Ridge carries enough food to feed the crew for 90 days and can transport supplies to support an emergency evacuation of3,000 people.

It has accommodation for more than 250 officers, 1,200 enlisted men and 100 enlisted women. The Blue Ridge earned the Meritorious Unit and Navy Unit Commendations for the evacuation of Ho' Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 1975.

It served as the flagship of the commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from August 1990 to May 1991, for which the ship earned another Navy Unit Commendation. The US Seventh Fleet is the US Navy's largest forward deployed fleet.