The America class ships are the next step in the incremental development of the amphibious assault ship and will replace the Tarawa class (LHA-1). USS America (LHA-6), the first of two planned Flight 0 ships, is an aviation-centric, modified repeat of the USS Makin Island (LHD-8). The new ship is optimized for aviation and capable of supporting current and future aircraft with additional aviation maintenance capability and increased fuel capacities. LHA-8 will be a Flight I ship, reintroducing the well deck without sacrificing aviation capability.

Since the American Revolution, three U.S. Navy warships have sailed with the name America. The first America was originally a racing schooner launched in 1851 and taken into Confederate naval service in 1861 before being captured and taken into the U.S. Navy in 1862. She served in the Navy until 1873 before returning to civilian life racing and cruising. In 1921 she was presented to the Navy for preservation as a relic and remained at the U.S. Naval Academy until being scrapped in 1945. The second America transported troops during World War I. The third ship to bear the name was a Kitty-Hawk class aircraft carrier that supported operations from the Vietnam War through Operation Desert Storm. USS America will be the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear this name.

 

Missions and Operations

Modern U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships project power and maintain presence as an integral part of joint, interagency and multinational maritime expeditionary forces. These ships operate for sustained periods in transit to operations in an Amphibious Objective Area to include embarking, transporting, controlling, inserting, sustaining and extracting elements of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force and supporting forces by helicopters and tilt rotors.

Alongside the Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD) and Dock Landing Ship (LSD), LHA ships will serve as cornerstone members of the Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG)/Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), forming a cohesive Navy/Marine Corps combined-arms team ready to respond to all missions across the range of military operations.

ARG/ESG ships transport and land elements of the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) or Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) with a combination of aircraft and landing craft. USS America and the USS Tripoli (LHA-7) are capable of Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL), Short Take-Off Vertical Landing (STOVL), Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor, and Rotary Wing (RW) aircraft operations. In addition to the aviation capabilities of LHA-6 and LHA-7, the well deck incorporated on LHA-8 will support the use of air cushion vehicles and other watercraft such as Landing Craft, Air Cushioned (LCAC) and Landing Craft Utility (LCU).

USS America (LHA-6) is designed execute core areas of the Navy’s Maritime Defense Strategy, «A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Sea Power».

• Forward Presence – Capability to forward deploy and remain on station for extended periods, which enables us to develop and maintain strong relationships with partner nations across the globe.
• Deterrence – Provide deterrence through presence and effective Theater Security Cooperation engagements. This creates security by minimizing conditions for conflict.
• Sea Control – LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) will use its modular mission packages to control Sea Lines of Communication by defeating swarming surface craft, enhancing the Fleet’s ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) capability, both in littoral waters and in concert with current ASW forces in the open ocean, and counter mine threats to sea lines of communication, particularly in global commerce chokepoints.
• Power Projection – Deliver and sustain power from over the horizon through significant airpower and command and control capabilities.
• Maritime Security – Maintain security at sea against piracy, terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and other illicit activities.
• Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response (HA/DR) – Provide the heavy airlift needed to deliver supplies to inaccessible areas after a disaster or conduct rapid and sustained non-combatant evacuation operations when personal safety is in jeopardy.

Equipped with two marine gas turbines providing 70,000 horsepower/52,199 kW, the 844-foot/257.3-meters America class LHA-6 is capable of reaching more than 20 knots/23 mph/37 km/h at sea. The largest of all amphibious warfare ships, she is capable of supporting Marine aircraft and providing a superb means of ship-to-shore movement.

America-class ships will facilitate forward presence and power projection as an integral part of joint, interagency, and multinational maritime expeditionary forces, supporting the Marine Corps tenets of Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS) and Ship to Objective Maneuver (STOM). As an amphibious ship, her mission includes embarking, transporting, controlling, inserting, sustaining and extracting elements of a marine air-ground task force, and support forces by helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft.

America also marks the first of the Navy’s newest class of amphibious assault ships replacing the Tarawa class. It is considered to be the next generation «big-deck» amphibious ship. At sea, the new ship will be more capable to support current and future aircraft, including the MV-22B Osprey, F-35B Lightning II and the future CH-53K King Stallion.

 

Design & Construction

The 844-foot/257.3-meters LHA-6 America class amphibious assault ship takes approximately five years to build. Its construction consists of 216 structural units, requiring 170 erection lifts, including grand blocks, plus two lifts to set the deckhouse on board (the main house, followed by smaller forward section). These blocks are built on land, starting with the ship’s midsection, and later moved to dry dock for launch by translation cars.

The America class is unique among large deck amphibious ships in that it is designed without a well deck, which is used to launch amphibious landing craft. Instead, they are designed with a larger hangar enabling it to carry more aircraft.

Two main turbines provide 70,000 horsepower/52,199 kW. Additionally, USS America LHA-6 has a separate source of propulsion, a unique Auxiliary Propulsion System (APS), which was designed for fuel efficiency. The APS uses two induction-type auxiliary propulsion motors powered from the ship’s electrical grid. America class ships include 1,000 miles/1,609 km of electrical cable, 431,000 feet/131,369 m of pipe and enough hullboard insulation to cover 40 acres/161,874 m².

 

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 ft/257.3 m
Beam	106 ft/32.3 m
Displacement	Approximately 43,745 long tons full load/44,449 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

Tripoli will be the third ship to bear the name, which commemorates the capture of Derna in 1805 by a small force of U.S. Marines and approximately 370 soldiers from 11 other nations. The battle, memorialized in the Marines’ Hymn with the line «to the shores of Tripoli» brought about a successful conclusion to the combined operations of the First Barbary War.

 

 

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
USS Fallujah (LHA-9)	09-20-2023
LHA-10

 

USS America continues to conduct flight operations and manuevering drills while transiting to Hawaii for ‪‎RIMPAC-2016