The future USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), the U.S. Navy’s 12th San Antonio class-amphibious transport dock ship, conducted Builder’s sea trials, October 26th.
Builder’s trials consist of a series of in-port and at-sea demonstrations that allow the U.S. Navy and the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding Division to assess the ship’s systems and readiness prior to Acceptance trials and delivery to the U.S. Navy.
«The completion of Builder’s trials is a great first step in ensuring operational readiness of the vessel and the capabilities it will soon bring to the fleet», said Captain Scot Searles, San Antonio Class Program Office, program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. «The collaboration between the U.S. Navy and our industry partners ensures that we’ll have a capable and ready ship for our Sailors».
The San Antonio-class is designed to support embarking, transporting, and landing Marines and their equipment by conventional or air-cushioned landing craft. The ship’s capabilities are further enhanced by its flight deck and hangar, enabling the ship to operate a variety of Marine Corps helicopters and the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft (MV-22). Because of the ships inherent capabilities, they are able to support a variety of amphibious assault, special operations, expeditionary warfare, or disaster relief missions, operating independently or as part of Amphibious Readiness Groups (ARGs), Expeditionary Strike Groups, or Joint Task Forces.
HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Division is currently in production of the future USS Richard S. McCool (LPD-29) and the future USS Harrisburg (LPD-30). LPD-28 and 29 will serve as transition ships to LPD-30 – the first LPD-17 Flight II ship.
As one of the Defense Department’s largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.
Ship Facts and Characteristics
| Propulsion | Four sequentially turbocharged marine Colt-Pielstick Diesels, two shafts, 41,600 shaft horsepower/31,021 kW |
| Length | 684 feet/208.5 m |
| Beam | 105 feet/32 m |
| Displacement | Approximately 24,900 long tons/25,300 metric tons full load |
| Draft | 23 feet/7 m |
| Speed | In excess of 22 knots/24.2 mph/38.7 km/h |
| Crew | Ship’s Company: 380 Sailors (29 officers, 351 enlisted) and 3 Marines. Embarked Landing Force: 699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge capacity to 800 |
| Armament | Two Mk-46 30-mm close in Guns, fore and aft; two Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launchers, fore and aft: ten .50 caliber/12.7-mm machine guns |
| Aircraft | Launch or land two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters or two MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft or up to four AH-1 Cobra or UH-1Y Venom helicopters |
| Landing/Attack Craft | Two Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCACs) or one Landing Craft Utility (LCU); and 14 Amphibious Assault Vehicles |
San Antonio-class
Flight I
| Ship | Builder | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| USS San Antonio (LPD-17) | Avondale | 07-12-2003 | 01-14-2006 | Norfolk, Virginia |
| USS New Orleans (LPD-18) | Avondale | 12-11-2004 | 03-10-2007 | San Diego, California |
| USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) | Ingalls | 11-19-2004 | 12-15-2007 | Norfolk, Virginia |
| USS Green Bay (LPD-20) | Avondale | 08-11-2006 | 01-24-2009 | San Diego, California |
| USS New York (LPD-21) | Avondale | 12-19-2007 | 11-07-2009 | Norfolk, Virginia |
| USS San Diego (LPD-22) | Ingalls | 05-07-2010 | 05-19-2012 | San Diego, California |
| USS Anchorage (LPD-23) | Avondale | 02-12-2011 | 05-04-2013 | San Diego, California |
| USS Arlington (LPD-24) | Ingalls | 11-23-2010 | 02-08-2013 | Norfolk, Virginia |
| USS Somerset (LPD-25) | Avondale | 04-14-2012 | 05-01-2014 | San Diego, California |
| USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26) | Ingalls | 11-02-2014 | 10-08-2016 | San Diego, California |
| USS Portland (LPD-27) | Ingalls | 02-13-2016 | 12-14-2017 | San Diego, California |
| USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) | Ingalls | 03-28-2020 | ||
| USS Richard M. McCool (LPD-29) | Ingalls |
Flight II
| Ship | Builder | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| USS Harrisburg (LPD-30) | Ingalls | |||
| USS Pittsburgh (LPD-31) | Ingalls |