Large Amphibious Assault Vessels

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Well she already lost the USS, Nassau was decommissioned in 2011.

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Yes, but I am sure she is still waiting for disposal. I am pretty sure that this Coalition of Hope would like to have her disposed by refitting her to their needs.

The only Tarawa left active is the

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, and she is scheduled to be decommissioned later in 2014, sometime a few months before the USS America, LHA-6, is commissioned.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

With the Rise of the LHA 6 comes the retirement of the Tarawa Class LHA, Someone however wants to extend the life of one of these Gator Carriers. The Coalition of Hope has a neat Idea. They want to repurpose the former USS Nassau.

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Strip out all the Weapons, refurbish her, Paint her like a hospital ship and use her as a amphibious aid platform. this makes a lot of sense as the mission profiles of Amphibious assault and Humanitarian disaster relief are actually almost identical case in point the Philippines right now.

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Ahem.. long ago I had a similar idea in this forum in one of the old carrier threads.

posted 08.22.2006

Originally Posted by bd popeye
The last year or so something has been bothering me about the USN carriers..large deck amphips included..The USN keeps sinking the retired ones as reefs. First it was the America next was the Oriskany(It was of little use) about a month ago the USN sank the ex-USS Belleau Wood(LHA-3)..Next year it plans to sink the USS Siapan(LHA-2) soon after it is decomissioned next year. The USN has 5 other retired CV's waiting to be disposed. What a waste. I know why the US won't sell them...But they could be put to use in other area's..a comando ship or training carrier..What a waste...

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posted 12.06.2006

bd popeye said:

bd popeye, Is there a possibility of US transferring at least older "Pocket CVs" to some allies in the future, INSTEAD OF SINKING/CUTTING THEM UP?

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I doubt it. I think Obi Wan said the RN inspected the USS Belleau Wood LHA-3 for a possible purchase and turned it down. Why? It needed major engineering re-fit. It spent 8 years in Japan foward deployed. As you know that's like an 8 year deployment.

I doubt if the US would ever sell and old LHA or LHD. They simply cost a lot to operate. The US maybe fearful of the ship falling into a potential foes hand.

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Just thought I would post it is all. It seemed a very timely peice and seems relevant. Even if COH were to build a civilian based ship for this mission it would likely be matching a lot of the features of a amphib. After all some large cruise ships have well decks and certainly have large areas for hospitals and refugees but they lack the hanger and helicopter flat deck as well as the command and control ability to manage large scale disaster relief efforts. Some freighters have a long flat deck and could be configured with a structure to serve as a hanger and landing deck but lack the hospital and refugee capacity. A Amphib carrier has both and its mission profile is almost perfect. Disasters like the Philippines demand getting logistics on water, food, medicine and shelter in fast well getting the injured out.
amphibious operations demand getting the same plus bullets and ammo.

anyway I suspect the Nassau will be sunk in a weapons test, we will hear about COH asking for the LHA5 then and once more sold for scrap or sunk. Mean time maybe COH will get a foreign navy to sell there equivalent of maybe they will build the worlds first civilian LHA.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Even if COH were to build a civilian based ship for this mission it would likely be matching a lot of the features of a amphib. After all some large cruise ships have well decks and certainly have large areas for hospitals and refugees but they lack the hanger and helicopter flat deck as well as the command and control ability to manage large scale disaster relief efforts. Some freighters have a long flat deck and could be configured with a structure to serve as a hanger and landing deck but lack the hospital and refugee capacity.

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No probs, TE.

But this massive capability to manage large scale operations of this sort, is just the type of thing that a nation like the US, UK, Russia, China, etc. are best suited to accomplish with their already in place infrastructure, comms, C&C, etc. . Like the US is doing with the Geroge Washington, 2-3 amphibious vessels, a hospital ship, etc. The UK is sending the Illustrious, which has significant similar capabilities.

As to the Tarawa class LHAs, I just believe that it is more likely that the US would sell one to a close ally in a few years as opposed to allowing a UN affiliated organization like this with ties to who knows what NGOs and "other" organizations be able to take and use such a vessel, and be able to glean all of its secrets.

Perhaps an organization like this will build a commercial vessel with a large flight deck, well deck, hospital, etc. More power to them...and if they are reputable (like the Red Cross or something of that nature), they could probably get a lot of donations. But then they have to man and operate it, and that will also be expensive and not a task suited for novices.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

I suspect the Nassau will be sunk in a weapons test, we will hear about COH asking for the LHA5 then and once more sold for scrap or sunk. Mean time maybe COH will get a foreign navy to sell there equivalent of maybe they will build the worlds first civilian LHA.

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That is very likely...but there still may be allies who are interested and who, with a cheap purchase price and a good overhaul could get decades more use out of either of them.

Time will tell.

What about the idea of selling those Tarawa class LHA to private oil companies like Exxon and Chevron as a potential oil platform off shore drilling or research?

The modifications required to allow for drilling would be well beyond the COH proposal. Drilling requires a opening in the structure for the drill and the platform to demands a lot of specialized design features not found in the Tarawa class.

A question was raised on another thread about the well deck doors on large amphibious assault vessel. One poster indicated that such doors would be impossible to keep water tight in heavy seas.

Of course, the water tight integrity of modern well decks has been ensured. Earlier LSDs had what was called a weather deck, which was open to the weather and was designed to allow water to catch there and be drained off, and to allow vessels to sail right in. There well deck door was not as watertight. The Ashland Class LSDs (the first US LSDs) were an example of this. Their weather/welldeck initially was open for almost its entire length, although later they were modernized and a helicopter landing deck for was built over most of it.

However, new class LSDs, LPDs, LHDs, LHAs etc. are designed for water-tight integrity.

Here are a couple of pictures where the hydraulic operating (opening/closing) mechanisms and the seals are clearly visible. Those doors are raised against their seals and water tight integrity is accomplished and then maintained with those actuators.

Right now we have a flap top frenzy

Aussies have two in the pipeline, South Korea has one, Japan will have four and Russia is getting two plus maybe two more

That's 11 flat tops in the region! Wow!

India just got thier carrier China has got thier carrier and both nations will add two more to thier fleet that's 6 carriers again wow! Add to that UK is building two carriers that's 8 carriers on the scene

8 carriers and 11 flat tops we have 19 flat tops that's not to mention that both China and India might also build flat top too other than the carriers so more than 20 flat tops are on the horizon

South Korea is the one to watch they are watching everyone very closely and could announce a flat top frenzy too, adding four is very easy for them so we could be looking at 25 units, wow wee!!

With the LHA there was a discussion of dry well decks for hovercraft access.
What happened to that idea? It would have created multipurpose space.

Kurt said:

With the LHA there was a discussion of dry well decks for hovercraft access. What happened to that idea? It would have create multipurpose space.

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For the Flight 0 LHA(R) vessels, there will be no well deck whatsoever. The hanger deck has been enlarged, and aircraft bunkerage and maintenance facilitiesenlarged. There is a significant vehicle storage area for RORO operations, and there will, of course, be Air Assault capabilities. But no well deck of any type. This would be for the two Flight 0 vessels:

USS America, LHA-6 (In trials)
USS Tripoli, LHA-7 (Building)


Here is the USS America, LHA-6 deprting for sea trials. You can clearly see the ;lack of a well deck, which for a vessel that otherwise looks very similar to the Wasp Class vessels, is strange looking from the aft.. This just underscoires her ability to be used as a STOVL Carrier when neccessary, with a full load of F-35Bs.


You can see it even better here, when she was taken out for launching:


Nope...no well deck.

Now, after those two, the Flight I LHA(R) ships will start building. To date, three are firmly planned, and they will have a well deck for amphibious assault operations. They will also include the larger hanger and better bukerage and maintenance for aircraft of the Flight 0 vessels. As a result, the well deck will be smaller than the Wasp class, proabbaly allowing for only two LCACs rather than the three the Wasp Class can carry, and probably a little less storage. These three vessels have not been named yet but will be:

LHA-8
LHA-9
LHA-10