Thank you for your help and your comments. Best regards, Carsten

USS MOUNT WHITNEY LCC 20 is on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mount.whitney/timeline?ref=page_internal
and has an own homepage:
http://www.mtwhitney.navy.mil/

Homeport of USS MOUNT WHITNEY is Gaeta, Italy, USS MOUNT WHITNEY (LCC 20) was constructed by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and is named for the 14,505-foot peak in the Sierra-Nevada range in California, the highest point in the lower continental United States. It is the first ship in the U.S. Navy to bear this name.

MOUNT WHITNEY (MTW) serves as the Command Ship for Commander, SIXTH Fleet/ Commander, Joint Command Lisbon/Commander, Striking Force NATO and has a complement of 150 enlisted personnel, 12 officers and 150 Civilian Mariners from Military Sealift Command. MTW was the first U.S. Navy combatant to permanently accommodate women on board. (source: homepage).
Regards Peter

Interesting. If a US-flag merchant ship had "significant repairs, upgrading and madifications" done abroad, it would probably lose its US cabotage rights. This is founded on the belief that shiprepair is a strategic industry and must be sustained in the national interest at whatever cost to the shipowner. Hmmm.

Miraflores and carlo martinelli are correct: USS MOUNT WHITNEY LCC 20;
Command ship of the US Navy 6th fleet (located in the Mediterranean with base at Gaeta /nearby Naples/, Italy)

Photo by det is actually captured at shipyard Viktor Lenac, Rijeka, Croatia;
USS Mount Whitney arrived at VLS on January 15, 2015;
ETD (estimated time of departure): August 4, 2015;
Value of the significant repairs, upgrading and modifications carried out onboard the vessel at the shipyard are amounting to abt 30 mil USD (source: local newspaper Novi List);
Thereas, USS Mount Whitney obtained extension of "life" for 10 years

Thank you for posting this well documentary photo, det !
Brgds (J)

USS MOUNT WHITNEY LCC 20

USS Mount Whitney

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Mount_Whitney_%28LCC-20%29

Rgds.
Juergen