Large Amphibious Assault Vessels

Jeff Head said:

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1) The US Marines wanted their own "Jeep" carriers so they could conduct more air operations when needed. The America class LHA s that answer. ...

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The capacity the planned LX(R) amphibious warship will bring to the Navy and Marine Corps Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) will be key to operating the first two aviation-centric America-class big deck amphibs, the Marines’ aviation head said this week.

Built without welldecks and the capacity to launch Marine landing craft, 45,000-ton USS America (LHA-6) and the under-construction Tripoli (LHA-7) will need the amphibious lift capacity of the current 25,000-ton San Antonio-class (LPD-17) and the under development LX(R) to make up for the loss, said Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, on Wednesday.

“The America-class ship was built without a well deck — that’s why LX(R) is so important,” Davis said at a Wednesday Navy and Marine Corps aviation forum sponsored by the Navy League.
“The bottom line is the LPD-17 and LX(R) with a welldeck will cover for that.”

Under current Marine doctrine, an amphibious assault generally requires two-thirds of the force to reach land via landing craft and one-third move through the air (the two-thirds drive, one-third flies doctrine).

The Department of the Navy decided to include welldecks in the remainder of the class beginning with the unnamed LHA-8 in the last several years.

The benefit to an ARG centered on America or Tripoli is the additional mission load allowance (MLA) for the aviation detachment of the embarked Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) and more support to newer aircraft like the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, the emerging Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallions heavy lift helicopters and the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

“What those two ships give us is a much larger sized MLA for the [aviation] components and much greater supply of aviation fuel onboard,” he said.
“[They are] designed for more power projection from those decks with a V-22 or a [CH-]53K and obviously optimized for the F-35 strike fighter operations and you’ll want to match that ship with a LPD-17 class boat and a LX(R).”

Based on the San Antonio hull, LX(R) will eventually replace the current crop of Whidbey Island and Harpers Ferry 16,000-ton and 11,000-ton landing ship docks (LSD-41/49).

Earlier this year the Navy announced an acquisition strategy that would combine the competition for LHA-8, six T-AO(X) fleet oilers and LX(R) into a competition between LPD-17 builder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and General Dynamics NASSCO.

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gCaptain said:

General Dynamics NASSCO has delivered the USNS Lewis B. Puller, the third ship in the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Landing Platform program and the first to be configured as Afloat Forward Staging Base.

The USNS Lewis B. Puller (MLP 3 AFSB) was delivered to the Navy in San Diego during a ceremony held last Friday at the NASSCO shipyard.

The Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) AFSB variant is optimized to support a variety of maritime-based missions and further strengthens the Navy’s new seabasing capabilities, with an added flight deck, berthing, fuel storage, equipment storage, and repair spaces. The ship is named in honor of the late U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis “Chesty” Puller, the most decorated Marine and the only one to be awarded five Navy Crosses.

Construction on the USNS Lewis B. Puller began in 2013.

MLPs are highly flexible platforms that provide logistics movement from sea to shore in support of a broad range of military operations.

The AFSB variant is designed around four core capabilities: aviation, berthing, equipment staging area, and command and control. The ASFB modifications add a 52,000 square-foot flight deck, fuel and equipment storage, repair spaces, magazines, mission planning spaces and accommodations for up to 250 personnel. The ship is capable of supporting multiple missions including Air Mine Counter Measures (AMCM), counter-piracy operations, maritime security operations, humanitarian aid and disaster relief missions and Marine Corps crisis response. The ship is also designed to support MH-53 and MH-60 helicopters, and will be upgraded to support MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft.

“This ship represents a leap forward in flexible capability for the U.S. Navy,” said Capt. Henry Stevens, Strategic and Theater Sealift program manager for Program Executive Office (PEO), Ships. “NASSCO was able to leverage a mature design and hot production line to meet the Navy’s requirements for an AFSB platform while minimizing program cost and risk.”

The U.S. Navy has awarded NASSCO a contract for the detail design and construction of a fourth Mobile Landing Platform, to be configured as another Afloat Forward Staging Base.

The MLP program comprises five ships across two variants in support of the Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) and an AFSB initiative. USNS Montford Point (MLP 1) and USNS John Glenn (MLP 2) were delivered and are currently serving in the U.S. Navy fleet. Construction on MLP 4 is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2015 and a fifth AFSB ship is planned for procurement in fiscal year 2017.

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FORBIN said:

JHSV Spearhead, 4 in service.

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USTKA, Poland (June 16, 2015) Landing craft vehicle personnel return to the British Royal Navy HMS Ocean as a Chinook departs the ship. Ocean is sailing off the coast of Poland during exercise Baltic Operations 2015 in preparation for an amphibious landing in Ustka. BALTOPS is an annual multinational exercise designed to enhance flexibility and interoperability, as well as demonstrate resolve of allied and partner forces to defend the Baltic region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Sarah E. Burns/Released)

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DODBuzz said:

The Navy and Huntington Ingalls are nearly one-third complete with initial construction of the soon-to-be USS Tripoli, the second new

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slated for delivery in December, 2018.

The USS Tripoli, called LHA 7, is being built at a Huntington Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It is scheduled for launch in July, 2017, service officials said.

“LHA 7 is approximately 30% complete. Fabrication has started on 211 units, 97% of all units, and 84 grand blocks are erected — 47% of the total,” Navy spokesman Mathew Leonard told Military.com in a written statement.

The first America-class amphib, the USS America or LHA 6, was commissioned and delivered to the Navy last year.

“The Navy and Ingalls have identified lessons learned from design and construction of LHA 6 for incorporation into design and construction of LHA 7 to improve production and quality. These lessons learned were addressed at Unit Readiness Reviews prior to the start of fabrication of each unit, for incorporation into the LHA 7 build strategy,” Leonard said.

The America-class amphibs are engineered to carry more

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Short-Take-Off-and-Landing Joint Strike Fighters,

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tiltrotor aircraft,

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and

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.

Designed as aviation-centric amphibs, the first two America class ships do not have well-deck for amphibious vehicles but rather are engineered with a larger hangar for aircraft, increased storage for parts and support equipment and additional aviation fuel capacity to support a higher op tempo, Navy officials said.

Technical adjustments were made to the flight deck of LHA 6 to better enable the ship to withstand the heat generated by the take-off and landing of the F-35B; these changes are being built into LHA 7 earlier in the construction process, Leonard explained.

“LHA 7 is being built as a repeat of the LHA 6 with very limited changes to the design. After delivery of LHA 6, a group of significant changes to the ship’s flight deck structure and equipment were necessary to accommodate the F-35B aircraft. These improvements are being incorporated into the basic build of LHA 7, which is expected to yield a better overall technical solution at reduced cost,” Leonard added.

The flight deck modifications to LHA 6 entail adding intercostal structural members underneath flight deck landing spots numbers 7 and 9, Navy officials explained.

“With the added structure, these two landing spots will provide the capability to perform closely timed cyclic flight operations with the F-35B without overstressing the flight deck,” a Navy official explained.

There are also numerous minor changes that were made during LHA 6 construction that will be implemented on LHA 7 to improve production and quality, Leonard explained.

The LHA 7 design will incorporate a high-tech Navy ship-based computing network called Consolidated Afloat Network and Enterprise Services, or CANES, Leonard said.

Overall, the USS Tripoli will be 844-feet long and 106-feet wide and have a weight of more than 44,000 tons. A fuel-efficient gas turbine propulsion system will bring the ship’s speed up to more than 20 knots, a Huntington Ingalls statement said.

The ship will be able to carry a crew of 1,204 and 1,871 troops, meaning the ship is being engineered to carry a Marine Expeditionary Unit, the statement added.

America class ships are outfitted with a group of technologies called a Ship Self Defense System. This includes two Rolling Aircraft Missile RIM-116 Mk 49 launchers; two Raytheon 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts; and seven twin .50 cal. machine guns, Navy officials said.

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Naval Today said:

Sailors from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) and Marines assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) completed composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX), Aug. 7, while operating as part of the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (KSGARG).

COMPTUEX is designed to prepare and assess Arlington and the other ships in the KSGARG individually and as a unit, prior to deployment.

During the exercise, Arlington ran through a series of drills that tested the crew’s ability to respond to different scenarios, such as maritime patrol, non-combatant evacuation operations, and visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations.

Completion of COMPTUEX marks the completion of the integrated phase of the ship’s training cycle, as well as completion of the certifications that make Arlington deployment ready.

The three-week exercise also helped to develop cooperation between the different units in the KSGARG by allowing it to practice responding together to various plausible scenarios.

Key components of COMPTUEX are communication and cooperation, not only between the ships, but also between the Sailors and Marines aboard.

KSGARG is composed of Amphibious Squadron 4 staff, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), Arlington (LPD 24), the amphibious dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), and the 26th MEU.

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*Amphibious Lift Goal

The Navy’s newly revised 308-ship force structure goal calls for achieving and maintaining a 34-ship amphibious force that includes 11 LHA/LHA-type amphibious assault ships, 12 San Antonio (LPD-17) class amphibious ships, and 11 LSD/LX(R)-type amphibious ships (11+12+11). Navy and Marine Corps officials had previously agreed that a 33-ship (11+11+11) force would minimally meet the Marine Corps’ goal of having an amphibious ship force with enough combined capacity to lift the assault echelons (AEs) of 2.0 Marine Expeditionary Brigades (MEBs). A 33-ship force would include 15 amphibious ships for each MEB, plus 3 additional ships to account for roughly 10% of the amphibious ship force being in overhaul at any given time. In February and March 2015 testimony, the Navy has explained that the 33-ship (11+11+11) requirement has been revised to a 34-ship (11+12+11) requirement to reflect the anticipated procurement in FY2016 of a 12th LPD-17 class ship.5

Marine Corps and Navy officials also agree that a 38-ship amphibious force would more fully meet the Marine Corps’ 2.0 MEB AE amphibious lift requirement. Such a force would include 17 amphibious ships for each MEB, plus 4 additional ships to account for ships in overhaul. Although a 38-ship force would more fully meet the Marine Corps’ lift requirement, the Navy and Marine Corps agreed to accept the operational risks associated with having a 33-ship (now 34-ship) force rather than a 38-ship force as a means of living within fiscal constraints.

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