From yesterday’s DOD contracts, a future 5th America-class amphibious assault ship, LHA-10:
Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $130,000,000 not-to-exceed undefinitized contract action for advance procurement of long lead time material and associated engineering and design activities in support of one Amphibious Assault Ship (General Purpose) Replacement (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship (LHA 10). Work will be performed in Beloit, Wisconsin (36%); Pascagoula, Mississippi (32%); Brunswick, Georgia (26%); and Walpole, Massachusetts (6%). Work is expected to be completed by July 2028. Fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $130,000,000 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. This contract is awarded based on 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-24-C-2467).
The reason for the big outlay is that these are essentially aircraft carriers– they would be in any other navy in history– and they cost upwards of $1 billion to construct in a period spanning a half-decade (provided there are no pandemics, hiring issues, or supply chain issues) to build.
Via Ingalls:
The 844-foot LHA 6 America class amphibious assault ship takes approximately five years to build. Its construction consists of 216 structural units, requiring 170 erection lifts, including grand blocks, plus two lifts to set the deckhouse on board (the main house, followed by smaller forward section). These blocks are built on land, starting with the ship’s midsection, and later moved to drydock for launch by translation cars.
Two main turbines provide 70,000 shaft horsepower. Additionally, LHA 6 has a separate source of propulsion, a unique electrical auxiliary propulsion system (APS) that was designed for fuel efficiency. The APS uses two induction-type auxiliary propulsion motors powered from the ship’s electrical grid. America-class ships include 1,000 miles of electrical cable, 431,000 feet of pipe and enough hull insulation to cover 40 acres.
Since the class leader was laid down in 2009, the Navy has taken possession of just two of these vessels (USS America LHA 6 and USS Tripoli LHA 7) — both Flight 0 ships without well decks.
The first Flight I ship, (PCU Bougainville LHA 8) with the standard LHA/LHD style well deck to support LCACs and LCUs as well as a host of smaller boats just transitioned to the water of the Pascagoula River and is set to christen on 2 December and commission sometime next year.
Meanwhile, PCU Fallujah (LHA 9) was only just laid down in September, meaning there will be a gap from 2024-2028 where no LHAs are delivered.
The “Replacement” designation for (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship (LHA 10) comes as it is planned to fill the gap left by the scrapped and very similar Pascagoula-built Wasp-class LHD USS Bonhomme Richard which, instead of rejoining the fleet after a mid-life refit in 2020, was decommissioned due to a very preventable fire that hopefully a lot of folks learned some stuff from.
200712-N-BL599-1044 SAN DIEGO (July 12, 2020) Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department boats combat a fire onboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at Naval Base San Diego, July 12. On the morning of July 12, a fire was called away aboard the ship while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego. Local, base and shipboard firefighters responded to the fire. USS Bonhomme Richard is going through a maintenance availability, which began in 2018. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christina Ross)
The seven remaining Wasps, which the Americas were supposed to eventually replace, are getting older by the day, with USS Wasp herself currently 34 years old and even the newest member, USS Makin Island (LHD-8) just marking her 14th year in the fleet.
The Navy has a love/hate relationship with these big ‘phib hulls, but even new math saw they are running low, with only 9 semi-available now, and pulling the punch when it comes to buying more.
Meanwhile, the forward-based 12th Marines just became the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment and will be packing up everything that isn’t anti-ship truck-related with beachfront delivery to be made by a force of 35 (!) yet-to-be-built Landing Ship–Mediums (LSMs), which are basically just an updated 1940s LCI/LST, although not as heavily armed.