New Amphibious Assault Ship • USS America (LHA 6)

[Angry_Vet]

This may have been posted before:  it's roughly same size as WW2 USN CVs

 

New Amphibious Assault Ship • USS America (LHA 6)

[Super_Dreadnought]

This may have been posted before:  it's roughly same size as WW2 USN CVs

 

USS America LHA-6: 45,000 tonnes

USS Essex CV-9 (as built during WW2): 27,100 tonnes

 

Doesn't look anywhere near roughly the same size to me.

[QuantumEntropy]

USS America LHA-6: 45,000 tonnes

USS Essex CV-9 (as built during WW2): 27,100 tonnes

 

Doesn't look anywhere near roughly the same size to me.

 

The ship has heavy bones

[Khafni]

And those gator freighters (LHA and LHD classes) are still less than half the tonnage of the modern Nimitz-class carriers. 

[Angry_Vet]

Size/Volume in this case

 

Class & type:	Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement:	40,650 tons (full combat load)
Length:	844 ft (257 m)
Beam:	106 ft (32 m)
Draft:	28 ft (8.5 m) (full load)
Propulsion:	Geared steam turbines
Speed:	exceeds 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried:	3 LCACs or 2 LCUs
Troops:	1,800
Complement:	73 officers, 1109 enlisted

Class & type:	America-class amphibious assault ship[2]
Displacement:	44,971 long tons (45,693 t)[8] full load
Length:	844 feet (257.3 meters)
Beam:	106 feet (32.3 meters)
Draft:	26 feet (7.9 meters)
Propulsion:	Two marine gas turbines, two shafts, 70,000 total brake horsepower, two 5,000 horsepower auxiliary propulsion motors.
Speed:	22+ knots (41+ km/h)[9]
Complement:	65 officers, 994 enlisted 1,687 Marines (plus 184 surge)

Class & type:	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	As built: 27,100 tons standard 36,380 tons full load
Length:	As built: 820 feet (250 m) waterline 872 feet (266 m) overall
Beam:	As built: 93 feet (28 m) waterline 147 feet 6 inches (45 m) overall
Draft:	As built: 28 feet 5 inches (8.66 m) light 34 feet 2 inches (10.41 m) full load
Propulsion:	As designed: 8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C) 4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines 4 × shafts 150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	As built: 2,600 officers and enlisted

 

[Angry_Vet]

and I did say roughly

[Angry_Vet]

My dad was a Seabee from WW2 through Vietnam, he spend some time on landing craft 

[CAPT_Rob]

I served for about 2 1/2 years in LHA-4 Nassau from January 1991 (Desert Storm) through August 1993 when I retired.

 

The LHA and LHD is capable of landing a full Marine Battalion complete with all its vehicles including tanks and supporting it for 30 days with food, fuel and air support (fixed wing and helo.)  During Desert Storm the Nassau changed her air complement, loading 20 AV-8Bs and functioned as a "Harrier Carrier," flying airstrikes into Kuwait and southern Iraq.

 

We carried an augmented crew and landing force totaling over 3000 souls, roughly 1000 Navy, 2000 Marines plus 2 Flag Officers (Navy Rear Admiral commanding the Amphibious Force of 31 ships and Marine Brigadier commanding ALL the Marines embarked in the force.)  Supporting the 2 Flags and their staff were officers and enlisted from the US Army, Air Force and from other nations including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  Needless to say, we were crowded but no one "hot racked" and I think we could have shoehorned in another couple dozen if necessary.

 

Nassau retired 3 years ago and is currently stored in mothballs near Beaumont Texas.  If you go to Google Earth you can see her "sharpie pen" shaped flight deck anchored in the basin just southeast (down river) of the city.  Her next move will be to the ship breaker sometime in the next 4 or 5 years I think.

[poeticmotion]

Even if they don't call her a light carrier, she's more a light carrier than a true  amphib IMO. No well deck, dependent on Ospreys and helos to get her partial MEU ashore, but embarks 20 of the new F-35 if they ever get it truly operational. I think I'd like her a lot more if they just called her a light carrier and built a few to augment the supercarriers instead of trying to force a square peg in round hole at the expense of true amphibious assault ships. 

 

With only ten supercarriers in commission, the U.S. only has capacity for 3 (maybe 4 in an emergency) carrier strike groups to be deployed at any given time, given maintenance, training, major mid-life overhauls, etc. Light carriers provide a lot of flexibility given that we really can't afford more of the big carriers than we currently operate. I like America-class as a concept, I just wish they'd gone full-bore with her and built her as a pure light carrier. As it stands, she's not a great carrier and she's not even a good amphibious assault ship.

[CAPT_Rob]

Agree.  I don't see the point of a large amphib with no well deck for LCU or LCAC.  The last ones the USN had were the LPHs which like America can only deliver their Marines and equipment by helo and thus lack the means to move needed heavy armor to the "beach head."  With 4 LCUs Nassau could deliver a company of tanks (12 M60A3 or 12 M1A1) to the beach.  The layout of the well deck prevented us from operating more than 1 LCAC at a time though the LHD type with a similar size well can take 2 LCAC or 4 LCU.

 

I like the F-35 concept, the current execution of it leaves me with less than warm and fuzzy feelings.  Too expensive and not living up to the hype like so many other new systems.  While the Marines need the V-STOL capability they may just have to make do with land based or carrier based air unless or until this thing comes to the fleet.