The ''Wasp'' class is a class of

landing helicopter dock A landing helicopter dock (LHD) is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship which is capable of operating helicopters and has a well deck. The United States Navy (USN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) use the term as a hull classification symbo ...

(LHD)

amphibious assault ship An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers (and, a ...

s operated by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Based on the , 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 The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Marine Expeditionary Unit A Marine expeditionary unit (MEU, pronounced as one syllable "" IPA: ) is the smallest air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.AV-8B Harrier II The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier family, capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL). The aircraft is primari ...

attack aircraft or

F-35B Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide elect ...

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 at 12,500 employees, the second largest ...

, at

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport– Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 2 ...

, 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 The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier family, capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL). The aircraft is primari ...

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 sh ...

(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 a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

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, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...

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 vesse ...

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 The General Electric LM2500 is an industrial and marine gas turbine produced by GE Aviation. The LM2500 is a derivative of the General Electric CF6 aircraft engine. As of 2004, the U.S. Navy and at least 29 other navies had used a total of more ...

geared

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

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-20 ...

, the LHDs can carry three

, twelve

Landing Craft Mechanised Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...

, or 40

Amphibious Assault Vehicle The Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV)—official designation AAVP-7A1 (formerly known as Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Personnel-7 abbr. LVTP-7)—is a fully tracked amphibious landing vehicle manufactured by U.S. Combat Systems (previously by Unit ...

s (AAVs), with another 21 AAVs on the vehicle deck. The

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from 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 helicopte ...

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 Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

. 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 The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engined attack helicopter that was developed on behalf of, and primarily operated by, the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The twin Cobra family, itself part of the larger Huey family, includes the AH-1J Se ...

/Z Super Cobra /Viper attack helicopters for attack and support, twelve Ospreys and four Super Stallions for transport, and three or four Bell UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters. For a full assault, the air group can have a maximum of 22 Ospreys, while a ''Wasp'' operating in the

sea control Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rivals ...

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 The Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk (or Sea Hawk) is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family. The most significant modificat ...

helicopters for

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in 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 are t ...

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

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

, 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 air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.M1 Abrams battle tanks, up to 25 AAVs, 8

M198 howitzer The M198 is a medium-sized, towed 155 mm artillery piece, developed for service with the United States Army and Marine Corps. It was commissioned to be a replacement for the World War II-era M114 155 mm howitzer. It was designed and prototyped ...

s, 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

Sailors stand watch aboard USS Wasp (LHD 1)

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

RIM-7 Sea Sparrow RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range 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 Sparrow air-to-air missile as ...

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 U.S. Navies. It was origin ...

s, three 20 mm

Phalanx CIWS The Phalanx CIWS (often spoken as "sea-wiz") is a 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 Gen ...

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 The BAE Systems Mark 36 Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeasures Chaff and Decoy Launching System (abbreviated as SRBOC or "Super-arboc") is an American short-range decoy launching system (DLS) that launches radar or infrared decoys from naval ve ...

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 The AN/SPS-48 is a US naval electronically scanned array air search three-dimensional radar system manufactured by ITT Exelis and deployed in the 1960s as the primary air search sensor for anti-aircraft warships. The deployment of the AN/SPY-1 ...

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 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