It’s foreign navy visiting season and hot in the wake of three Chinese warships entering Sydney Harbour a fortnight ago, the US navy sent USS Wasp through the Heads on Tuesday, bristling with the latest in American amphibious warfighting capability.

But the arrival dockside at Garden Island did not quite go according to plan. Despite the much-vaunted "interoperability" of US and Australian defence assets, navy personnel took several hours working out how to connect the ship’s main gangway to the Garden Island wharf.

USS Wasp entering Sydney Harbour before joining Exercise Talisman Sabre in Queensland. Credit:Nick Moir

Senior brass and journalists waited dockside as various manoeuvres were tried involving a crane, ropes and teams of seamen before the senior US officers eventually made it ashore.

US Captain Jim McGovern, the commodore of Amphibious Squadron Eleven, and Marines leader Colonel Robert Brodie, brushed aside the delay, proffering the explanation that the Wasp had not been to Sydney before and they wanted to ensure safety for disembarking sailors and marines.