The ''Wasp''-class is a

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

of landing helicopter dock (LHD)

amphibious assault ship 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 (which, as a result, ar ...

s operated by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. Based on the , with modifications to operate more advanced aircraft and

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

, the ''Wasp''-class is capable of transporting almost the full strength of a

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

Marine Expeditionary Unit A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU, pronounced as one syllable "" IPA: ) is the smallest Marine air-ground task force, air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.AV-8B Harrier II

attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pr ...

or F-35B Lightning II stealth strike-fighters. All ''Wasp''-class ships were built by

Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and now part of HII. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and, as of 2023, is the largest private em ...

, at

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula metropolitan area, and is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi–Pascag ...

, with the lead ship, , commissioned on 29 July 1989. Eight ''Wasp''-class ships were built, and , seven are in active service, as was seriously damaged by fire on 12 July 2020, and subsequently decommissioned in April 2021.

Design

The ''Wasp''-class is based on the preceding design.Bishop & Chant, ''Aircraft Carriers'', p. 230 The design was modified to allow for the operation of AV-8B Harrier II aircraft and

Landing Craft Air Cushion The Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) is a class of air-cushioned landing craft (hovercraft) used by the United States Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). They transport weapons systems, equipment, cargo and personnel from s ...

(LCAC) hovercraft, making the ''Wasp'' class the first ships specifically designed to operate these. The main physical changes between the two designs are the lower placement of the ship's

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

in the ''Wasp'' class, the relocation of the command and control facilities to inside the hull, the removal of the Mk 45 naval guns and their

sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, Instantaneous stability, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercra ...

s on the forward edge of the flight deck, and a lengthening of to carry the LCACs. Each ''Wasp''-class ship has a displacement of at full load, is long, has a beam of , and a

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of .Bishop & Chant, ''Aircraft Carriers'', p. 231. For propulsion, most of the ships are fitted with two steam boilers connected to geared turbines, which deliver to the two propeller shafts. This allows the LHDs to reach speeds of , with a range of at . The last ship of the class, , was instead fitted with two General Electric LM2500 geared

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

s. The ship's company consists of 1,208 personnel.

Amphibious operations

The LHDs can support amphibious landings in two forms: by landing craft and by helicopter. In the by high

well deck In traditional nautical use, well decks were decks lower than decks fore and aft, usually at the main deck level, so that breaks appear in the main deck profile, as opposed to a flush deck profile. The term goes back to the days of sail. Late-2 ...

, the LHDs can carry three

, twelve Landing Craft Mechanised, or 40 Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs), with another 21 AAVs on the vehicle deck. The

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

has nine helicopter landing spots and can operate helicopters and tiltrotors as large as the

Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion is a heavy lift helicopter operated by the United States military. As the Sikorsky S-80, it was developed from the CH-53 Sea Stallion, mainly by adding a third engine, adding a seventh blade to the main rotor ...

and MV-22B Osprey. The size of the air combat element varies depending on the operation: a standard air combat element consists of six Harriers or six F-35B Lightning IIs and four AH-1W /Z

Super Cobra ''Super Cobra'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Konami, originally released as an arcade video game in 1981. It was published by Konami in Japan in March 1981 and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North America on June ...

/Viper attack helicopters for attack and support, twelve Ospreys and four Super Stallions for transport, and three or four

Bell UH-1Y Venom The Bell UH-1Y Venom (also called Super Huey) is a twin-engine, 4-blade, medium-sized utility helicopter built by Bell Helicopter under the H-1 upgrade program of the United States Marine Corps. One of the latest members of the numerous Bell H ...

utility helicopters. For a full assault, the air group can have a maximum of 22 Ospreys, while a ''Wasp'' operating in the sea control or "Harrier carrier" or "Lightning carrier" configuration carries 20 AV-8Bs or F-35Bs (though some ships of the class have operated as many as 24 Harriers), supported by 6 Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters for

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

. Two aircraft elevators move aircraft between the flight deck and the hangar; in order to transit the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

, these elevators need to be folded in. USS Essex Thailand

Each ship is capable of hosting 1,894 personnel of the

; almost the full strength of a

marine expeditionary unit A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU, pronounced as one syllable "" IPA: ) is the smallest Marine air-ground task force, air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.M1 Abrams The M1 Abrams () is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare, it is one of the heavies ...

battle tanks, up to 25 AAVs, 8 M198 howitzers, 68 trucks, and up to 12 other support vehicles. A six-track internal monorail system and six internal elevators are used to shift cargo from the cargo holds to landing craft in the well deck. Each ''Wasp''-class ship has a hospital with 64 patient beds and 6 operating rooms. An additional 536 beds can be set up in an overflow casualty ward as needed.

Armament and sensors

The armament of the first four ''Wasp'' class consists of two Mark 29 octuple launchers for

RIM-7 Sea Sparrow The RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range Surface-to-air missile, anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system, primarily intended for defense against anti-ship missiles. The system was developed in the early 1960s from the AIM-7 Spa ...

missiles, two Mark 49 launchers for

RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and United States navies. It wa ...

s, three 20 mm

Phalanx CIWS The Phalanx CIWS () is an automated gun-based close-in weapon system to defend military watercraft automatically against incoming threats such as aircraft, missiles, and small boats. It was designed and manufactured by the General Dynamics Co ...

s, four 25 mm Mark 38 chain gun systems, and four .50 caliber machine guns. The next four ships, , , , and , have a slightly reduced weapons outfit compared to their preceding sister ships, with one Phalanx and one Mark 38 gun removed. Countermeasures fitted to the ships include four to six Mark 36 SRBOC chaff and decoy launchers, an AN/SLQ-25 torpedo decoy, AN/SLQ-49 chaff buoys, a Sea Gnat missile decoy, and an AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite. The sensor suite fitted to each ship comprises an AN/SPS-48 or AN/SPS-52 air-search radar backed up by an AN/SPS-49 air-search radar, an SPS-67 surface search radar, an AN/URN-25

TACAN A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system initially designed for naval aircraft to acquire moving landing platforms (i.e., ships) and later expanded for use by other military aircraft. It p ...

system, along with several additional radars for navigation and fire control.

Construction

All ''Wasp''-class ships were built by

, at

. The first ship of the class, , was commissioned on 29 July 1989. The fifth ship of the class, , was constructed through a process of modular assembly and prefitting out, which meant that the LHD was almost 75 percent complete when she was launched. ''Bataan'' was also the first LHD that was purpose built to house female crew members (as opposed to being modified after completion), with dedicated berths for up to 450 female sailors or Marines. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera in 2014 suggested that Japan purchase at least one ''Wasp''-class ship to provide robust defensive amphibious capability for Japanese outer islands in the face of Chinese threats.Onodera sets out plans to buy amphibious assault ships
(archived fro
the original
on 26 July 2014)

Ships in class

File:US Navy 100220-N-1524B-057 The amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) launches a NATO Sea Sparrow missile from the forward NATO mount.jpg, A Sea Sparrow missile being launched by USS ''Makin Island'' File:US Navy 070221-N-6482W-221 A CH-53E Super Stallion, assigned to Medium Marine Helicopter Squadron Two Six Four (HMM-264) (Reinforced), lifts palettes of Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MRE) from amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5).jpg, A CH-53E Super Stallion lifting pallets off USS ''Bataan'' File:USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) on fire at San Diego, California (USA), on 12 July 2020 (200712-N-MJ716-0498).jpg, USS ''Bonhomme Richard'' on fire at Naval Base San Diego, California, on 12 July 2020.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasp Class Amphibious Assault Ship Wasp class amphibious assault ship Amphibious warfare vessel classes Wasp class amphibious assault ship