Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced on April 19, 2021 that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a contract modification from the U.S. Navy for $107 million to provide long-lead-time material and advance procurement activities for amphibious assault ship LHA-9.
«The amphibious warship production line is a critical component of our nation’s defense industrial base», Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said. «This funding will strengthen our suppliers and sustain jobs across the country in support of LHA-9 construction».
Ingalls is the sole builder of large-deck amphibious ships for the U.S. Navy. The shipyard delivered its first amphibious assault ship, the Iwo Jima-class USS Tripoli (LPH-10), in 1966. Ingalls has since built five Tarawa-class (LHA-1) ships, eight Wasp-class (LHD-1) ships and the first in the new America class of amphibious assault ships (LHA-6) in 2014. The second ship in the America class, USS Tripoli (LHA-7), was delivered to the U.S. Navy in early 2020. USS Bougainville (LHA-8) is under construction.
General Characteristics
| Builder | Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., Ingalls Operations, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
| Date Deployed | Delivered to the fleet in on April 10, 2014 |
| Propulsion | Two marine gas turbines, two shafts, 70,000 total brake horsepower/52,199 kW, two 5,000 horsepower/3,728 kW auxiliary propulsion motors |
| Length | 844 feet/257.3 m |
| Beam | 106 feet/32.3 m |
| Displacement | Approximately 45,000 long tons full load /45,722 metric tons |
| Speed | 20+ knots/23+ mph/37+ km/h |
| Crew | 1,059 (65 officers) |
| Load | 1,687 troops (plus 184 surge) |
| Armament | 2 RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) launchers |
| 2 NATO Sea Sparrow launchers with ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile) | |
| 2 20-mm Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) mounts | |
| 7 twin 12,7-mm/.50 cal. machine guns | |
| Aircraft | 9 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) STOVL (Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft |
| 4 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters | |
| 4 CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters | |
| 12 MV-22B Osprey VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) tiltrotors | |
| 2 MH-60S Sea Hawk Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters | |
| UH-1Y Huey helicopters |
Ships
| Ship | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| USS America (LHA-6) | 07-17-2009 | 06-04-2012 | 10-11-2014 | Sasebo, Japan |
| USS Tripoli (LHA-7) | 06-22-2014 | 05-01-2017 | 07-15-2020 | San Diego, California |
| USS Bougainville (LHA-8) | 03-14-2019 | |||
| LHA-9 |