USS Saipan during Expeditionary Strike Group integration training in 2004 | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Tarawa class |
Builders | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
Operators | United States Navy |
Preceded by | Iwo Jima class |
Succeeded by | Wasp class |
Built | 15 November 1971 – 3 May 1980 |
In commission | 29 May 1976 – 31 March 2015 |
Planned | 9 |
Completed | 5 |
Cancelled | 4 |
Retired | 5 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Amphibious assault ship/LHA |
Displacement | 39,967 tonnes (39,336 long tons; 44,056 short tons) full load |
Length | 834 feet (254 m) |
Beam | 131.9 feet (40.2 m) |
Draft | 25.9 feet (7.9 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
Range | 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Boats & landing craft carried | |
Troops | 1,703 |
Complement | 56 officers, 874 sailors (1998) |
Armament |
|
Aircraft carried |
|
Aviation facilities | 820-by-118.1-foot (249.9 by 36.0 m) flight deck with 2 aircraft lifts |
The Tarawa class is a ship class of Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) type amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy (USN). Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between 1971 and 1980; another four ships were planned, but later canceled; instead they were joined by the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships.
As of March 2015 [update] , all vessels had been decommissioned. The Tarawa class were replaced by the America-class amphibious assault ships from 2014 onward while the Wasp class remains in service.
The vessels have a full load displacement of 39,967 tonnes (39,336 long tons; 44,056 short tons). [1] Each ship is 834 feet (254 m) long, with a beam of 131.9 feet (40.2 m), and a draft of 25.9 feet (7.9 m). [1]
Propulsion is provided by two Combustion Engineering boilers, connected to two Westinghouse turbines. [1] These supply 70,000 horsepower (52,000 kW) to the ship's two propeller shafts. [1] A Tarawa-class vessel can reach a maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph), and has a maximum range of 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). [1] In addition to the main propulsion system, the ships are fitted with a bow thruster. [1]
As of 1998, the ships' armament consisted of a Mark 49 RAM surface-to-air missile system, two Vulcan Phalanx close-in weapons systems, six Mark 242 25 mm automatic cannons, and eight 12.7 mm machine guns. [1] Previously, the amphibious warships were fitted with 2 Mark 25 Sea Sparrow missile systems (which were replaced by the Phalanx units), and three 5-inch (127 mm) Mk 45 lightweight guns in bow and starboard aft sponsons (the guns were removed across the class during 1997 and 1998). [1] Countermeasures and decoys include four Mark 36 SRBOC launchers, a SLQ-25 Nixie towed torpedo decoy, a Sea Gnat unit, SLQ-49 chaff decoys. [1]
The number of helicopters carried by each vessel was up to 19 Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallions, 26 Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight, or a mix of the two. [1] The 820-by-118.1-foot (249.9 by 36.0 m) flight deck is fitted with two aircraft lifts, and up to nine Sea Stallions or 12 Sea Knights can be operated simultaneously. [1] With a small amount of modification, the ships could carry and operate up to six McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II jump-jets. [1]
The Tarawa-class ships are designed to embark a reinforced battalion of the United States Marine Corps and their equipment. [1] Onboard accommodation is provided for up to 1,703 marines, while 33,730 cubic feet (955 m3) is provided for the battalion's vehicles, and 116,900 cubic feet (3,310 m3) is allocated for stores and other equipment. [1] As well as deploying by helicopters, personnel and equipment can be embarked or offloaded via a 268-by-78-foot (82 by 24 m) well deck in each ship's stern. [1] Up to four LCU 1610 landing craft can be transported in and operated from the well deck, along with other designs and combinations of landing craft (two LCU and two LCM-8, or 17 LCM-6, or 45 AAVP). [1]
The Tarawa design was later repeated for the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, with some changes. [2] The main changes to the latter eight-ship class include the lower placement of the ship's bridge aboard the Wasps, the relocation of the command and control facilities to inside the hull, modifications to allow the operation of Harrier jump-jets and Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft, and removal of the 5-inch guns and their sponsons to increase the overall size of the flight deck. [2] [3]
All five warships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, at this company's shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. [1] Tarawa was approved for construction during fiscal year 1969, with two more ships of this class ordered by Congress in the 1970 and 1971 fiscal years. [1]
Design problems emerged early in the LHA program and contrary to the intent of the Total Package Procurement concept, the Navy became heavily involved in the design process. [4] Nine ships were originally contracted for the Tarawa class, but that number was reduced to five in January 1971. [4] The other four ships were never built for the Navy. [1]
Work on the first warship of this class, USS Tarawa, began on 15 November 1971, and she was commissioned into the Navy on 29 May 1976. [1] The last of the five ships, USS Peleliu, was completed on 3 May 1980. [1]
The Tarawas began leaving service in 2005. By April 2011, four of the five amphibious assault ships had been decommissioned, leaving only Peleliu in active service. [5] Peleliu was decommissioned on 31 March 2015 in San Diego. [6]
The Tarawa class is to be replaced by the America class. [3] The first America-class vessel was delivered and commissioned in 2014.
Name | Hull number | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tarawa | LHA-1 | 15 November 1971 | 1 December 1973 | 29 May 1976 | 31 March 2009 | Sunk as target ship on 19 July 2024 |
Saipan | LHA-2 | 21 July 1972 | 18 July 1974 | 15 October 1977 | 25 April 2007 | Scrapped 2009 |
Belleau Wood (ex-Philippine Sea) | LHA-3 | 5 March 1973 | 11 April 1977 | 23 September 1978 | 28 October 2005 | Sunk as target ship on 13 July 2006 |
Nassau (ex-Leyte Gulf) | LHA-4 | 13 August 1973 | 21 January 1978 | 28 July 1979 | 31 March 2011 | Scrapped 30 April 2021 [7] |
Peleliu (ex-Da Nang, ex-Khe Sanh) | LHA-5 | 12 November 1976 | 25 November 1978 | 3 May 1980 | 31 March 2015 | In reserve |
USS Peleliu (LHA-5) is a Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy, named for the Battle of Peleliu of World War II. Entering service in 1980, she has been deployed to the Persian Gulf on several occasions, performed an evacuation of U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, operated with the INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce, participated in Pacific Partnership deployments, and provided assistance following the massive floods in Pakistan in 2010. She was decommissioned in San Diego, California on 31 March 2015. She currently rests, out of commission and in reserve, at NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office, Pearl Harbor, Hawaiiin the inactive reserve in case of further need.
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) is the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy. She is the fifth ship to bear that name, but the fourth to serve under it, as the third was renamed Hornet (CV-12) before launching.
USS Tarawa (LHA-1), the lead ship of her class, was an amphibious assault ship that served in the United States Navy from 1976 to 2009. She was the second ship to be named for the Battle of Tarawa, fought during World War II. Tarawa was decommissioned on 31 March 2009, at San Diego Naval Base.
The Wasp-class is a class of landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy. Based on the Tarawa class, with modifications to operate more advanced aircraft and landing craft, the Wasp-class is capable of transporting almost the full strength of a United States Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and landing them in hostile territory via landing craft or helicopters as well as providing air support via AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft or F-35B Lightning II stealth strike-fighters. All Wasp-class ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, with the lead ship, USS Wasp, commissioned on 29 July 1989. Eight Wasp-class ships were built, and as of April 2021, seven are in active service, as USS Bonhomme Richard was seriously damaged by fire on 12 July 2020, and subsequently decommissioned in April 2021.
A landing helicopter dock (LHD) is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship that is capable of operating as a helicopter carrier and also has a well deck for supporting landing crafts. LHD vessels are built with a full flight deck similar in appearance to a light aircraft carrier to operate VTOL rotorcrafts such as utility and attack helicopters, and can also support tiltrotor aircraft and VSTOL fixed-wing aircraft. Some future designs might even support CATOBAR operations for light aircraft and UCAVs via aircraft catapults and arresting gears.
A landing ship, tank, (LST) is a ship first developed during World War II (1939–1945) to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto a low-slope beach with no docks or piers. The shallow draft and bow doors and ramps enabled amphibious assaults on almost any beach.
Landing helicopter assault (LHA) is the United States Navy's hull classification symbol for the general-purpose helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships of the Tarawa and America classes.
The names of commissioned ships of the United States Navy all start with USS, for United States Ship. Non-commissioned, primarily civilian-crewed vessels of the U.S. Navy under the Military Sealift Command have names that begin with USNS, standing for United States Naval Ship. A letter-based hull classification symbol is used to designate a vessel's type. The names of ships are selected by the Secretary of the Navy. The names are those of states, cities, towns, important persons, important locations, famous battles, fish, and ideals. Usually, different types of ships have names originated from different types of sources.
A Landing Craft Utility (LCU) is a type of boat used by amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore. They are capable of transporting tracked or wheeled vehicles and troops from amphibious assault ships to beachheads or piers.
A helicopter carrier is a type of aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. It has a large flight deck that occupies a substantial part of the deck, which can extend the full length of the ship like HMS Ocean of the Royal Navy (RN), or extend only partway, usually aft, as in the Soviet Navy's Moskva class or in the Chinese Navy's Type 0891A. It often also has a hangar deck for the storage and maintenance of rotorwing aircraft.
The America class is a ship class of landing helicopter assault (LHA) type amphibious assault ships for the United States Navy (USN). The class is designed to put ashore a Marine Expeditionary Unit using helicopters and MV-22B Osprey V/STOL transport aircraft, supported by AV-8B Harrier II or F-35 Lightning II V/STOL aircraft and various attack helicopters. The first of these warships was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 2014 to replace USS Peleliu of the Tarawa class; as many as eleven will be built. The design of the America class is based on that of USS Makin Island, the last ship of the Wasp class, but the "Flight 0" ships of the America class will not have well decks, and have smaller on-board hospitals to provide more space for aviation uses.
In the United States Navy, the expeditionary strike group (ESG) is a coordinated group of surface ships, aircraft, submarines, and other naval assets. In contrast to carrier strike groups (CSGs), which emphasize air power and are led by a supercarrier, ESGs are strongly suited for amphibious warfare and are led by an amphibious assault ship. The ESG concept was introduced in the early 1990s, based on the Naval Expeditionary Task Force. The U.S. Navy fields nine expeditionary strike groups.
USS America (LHA-6), is an amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy and the lead ship of the America-class amphibious assault ship. The fourth U.S. warship to be named for the United States of America, she was delivered in spring of 2014, replacing Peleliu of the Tarawa class. Her mission is to act as the flagship of an expeditionary strike group or amphibious ready group, carrying part of a Marine expeditionary unit into battle and putting them ashore with helicopters and V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, supported by F-35B Lightning II aircraft and helicopter gunships.
An amphibious assault ship is a type of warship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory during an armed conflict. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers. Modern designs support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Like the aircraft carriers they were developed from, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft and have a secondary role as aircraft carriers.
An amphibious warfare ship is an amphibious vehicle warship employed to land and support ground forces, such as marines, on enemy territory during an amphibious assault.
USS Tripoli (LHA-7) is the second America-class amphibious assault ship built for the United States Navy. On 7 May 2012, United States Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the ship's name as Tripoli, in honor of the US Marine Corps victory against Tripoli at the Battle of Derna during the First Barbary War. This is the third US Naval ship to carry the name, the first being USS Tripoli (CVE-64), an escort carrier from World War II and the second being USS Tripoli (LPH-10), an amphibious assault ship that served during the Cold War.
USS Bougainville (LHA-8) is an America-class amphibious assault ship currently under construction for the United States Navy. She will be the second Navy ship to be named Bougainville.