underway in June 1997 USSAmericaByPhilKonstantin

Landing helicopter assault (LHA) is 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 ...

hull classification symbol The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ind ...

for the general-purpose

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

-carrying

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 of the ''Tarawa'' and ''America'' classes. Their purpose is to project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the amphibious ready group or expeditionary strike group. They are used to transport Fleet Marine Force personnel and equipment while operating in a deployed

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.marine expeditionary brigade (MEB). They normally travel in task forces called " amphibious ready groups". These ships and their escorts are capable of anything from military landing operations to humanitarian operations. These vessels are built with a full flight deck similar in appearance to an aircraft carrier to operate utility and attack helicopters. They can also operate tilt rotor aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey and

STOVL A short take-off and vertical landing aircraft (STOVL aircraft) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is able to take off from a short runway (or take off vertically if it does not have a heavy payload) and land vertically (i.e. with no runway). The ...

aircraft such as the AV-8 Harrier and the F-35B Lightning II. The Tarawa-class LHAs provided the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement by helicopter in addition to movement by landing craft. They were the first ships designed to do both things efficiently at the same time. The first two ships of the new ''America'' class, LHA-6 and LHA-7, differ from both the older ''Tarawa''-class LHAs and LHDs in that they have no

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 ...

; LHA-8 and following ships include well deck facilities. LHAs that contain a well deck are able to support the use of landing craft, air cushions (LCACs) and other watercraft. Three Tarawa Class LHAs were active during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Since then, LHAs have participated in US Navy operations as launch platforms for Marine Corps expeditionary forces into Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (2001/02), Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) and humanitarian support after the tsunami in 2004. In 2004, LHAs were used to transport marines and their equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan for combat operations.

References

Amphibious warfare vessels Helicopter carriers Ships of the United States Navy {{US-navy-stub

See also

References