The second America-class amphibious warship entered the U.S. Navy fleet in an administrative action last Wednesday, July 15th without the pomp and circumstance of a commissioning ceremony. A lot of the timing had to do with the fire on the Bonhomme Richard (BHR) in San Diego.
USS Tripoli (LHA-7), which delivered to the Navy in February, will continue to prepare to transit to its new homeport at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., later this year.
Named for the 1805 Battle of Derna and crewed by 1,000 sailors, Tripoli eschews the well deck of the previous class of Wasp-class design in favor of an aviation-enhanced design. As with lead ship USS America (LHA-6), Tripoli has larger aviation maintenance spaces to accommodate the MV-22B Osprey and F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter, increased jet fuel stores and more to support the Marines’ latest and greatest aircraft types.
Tripoli will be able to field F-35Bs on its first deployment, thanks to both the design and some upgrades that were made during and after the ship construction process, such as improved communications and flight deck strengthening to support the heat coming from the jet during its vertical landings.
“Tripoli’s design features an enlarged hangar deck, realignment and expansion of the aviation maintenance facilities, a significant increase in available stowage for parts and support equipment, and increased aviation fuel capacity.”
The 45,000-ton warship also fields a hybrid propulsion that uses electric motors to drive the ship when traveling under 12 knots. That propulsion system was first introduced in the last Wasp-class ship, USS Makin Island (LHD-8).
The ship will be the last in the class to be built without a well deck. As part of a redesign of the America class, the next ship, Bougainville (LHA-8), will include the well deck and capability to launch surface connectors to bring Marines ashore.
The newly minted CH-53K King Stallion has begun to be delivered to the US Marine Corps. It’s a heavy lift platform, not a long range heavy gun ship Like the MH-53 Pave Low. Their first sea command will likely be the USS Tripoli.
USS Tripoli is slated to be a key player in the coming war with China.
“USS Tripoli is slated to be a key player in the coming war with China.”
What weapon system (non nuclear) is best for taking out the Three Gorges Dam?
MOAB?
Mother-of-all-bombs – massive ordnance penetrator. It would finish a dam in short order.
Time…..
Deep penetrators launched from orbit after being carried up by the X-37B.
Next would be a Joint Strike Missile.
It might give way all on its own before the war with China.
Yeah, the best weapon for that is ChiCom corruption and callousness.
-Kle.
She’s a nice ship. She should have had a great commissioning ceremony, but that was screwed up by the Covidiocracy, the hatred of Trump by senior military personnel, and Bonnie Dick burning.
Amazing how big she is and she’s considered a small flat-top in today’s world, in the US Navy, that is.
In any other navy, Tripoli would be a fleet carrier.
Great information. Thank you, LL.
My pleasure, LindaG
Not being a Navy squid, what pray tell is a “well deck” Is it the elevator to bring aircraft onto the deck?
A well deck is a floodable space, with a door at the rear of the ship. You keep landing craft (usually really big hovercraft) and amphibious assault vehicles in it. Get to a location, flood it, float out the vehicles and onto the beach.
Also called a well dock, according to wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_dock
Also see “Landing Ship Dock” or LSD. The concept has been in operation for a very long time, but we didn’t apply it to aircraft carriers before, which the Tripoli is. The F-35B is a state of the art fighter aircraft, capable of defending the ship and the battle space and establishing air superiority/supremacy. Tripoli doesn’t have the naval air wing that a CV has, but two or three of these smaller amphibious assault ships in one place, working in concert with other naval assets (including submarines) are a game changer in terms of warfare in the Pacific.
Is she nuclear powered?
Conventional powered. The funnels are to the port of the two control islands, angling away from the ship.
USS Tripoli is slated to be a key player in the coming war with China.
They ought to coat it with non-toxic paint, so that after it’s sunk by a missile swarm it can become a useful coral reef. The surface US Navy revealed it could not fight its assigned adversaries during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which threatened a nuclear torpedo from a Russian sub. Then Millennium Challenge in 2002 revealed it could not fight the Iranian coastal fishing fleet armed with Russian Silkworm missiles. Nearly 20 years later, the only adversaries I expect it can beat are military reformers who want to de-fund it as pork.
You confuse capacity and will.
The US could turn Iran into a sea of radioactive glass at the push of a button. And Iran never did fire its Silkworm Missiles (SS-N-2C) did they? The Iranian Silkworms are land based. The Boghammers (Iranian small craft) came out to play against a US Navy with very tight rules of engagement.
Actually, Iran is a poor example to use. And Iran knows it. I want to take you back to 1990-91, thirty years ago, to Iraq and the First Gulf War. Iraq had the latest Russian equipment and the fourth largest standing army on the planet and it folded like a napkin. The Russians had no idea that US equipment would work as advertised, and for the most part, it did. The US Invasion of Iraq worked just as well, but the US didn’t have the will to do what was necessary to keep the peace there.
Again, don’t confuse capacity with will.
I’m not seeing how that’s related to my point. I am talking only about surface navy ships, not anything based on land or air. Big fancy US Navy surface ships lose to swarm attacks of cheap missiles or torpedoes. They’re obsolete.
Naval surface ships are but one component of combined arms that dominates space, air, sea, undersea and land. The Chinese, in this case, have submarines that are not ready for prime time, and locating aircraft carriers at sea and sinking them is simply not that easy given the pressure that they would be under from cruise missiles smashing their ports and ships in port and airfields containing strategic aircraft.
Sure, they could go nuclear, and then all bets are off.
Something nobody talks about is how fast US nuclear carriers are. Sure, listed speeds are 30ish knots… That’s listed speed.
Combine actual top emergency get out of town speed (where you can practically launch an OV-10 or a Cessna-ish plane just by the airspeed over the flight deck) and all the electronic countermeasures from a full Carrier Battle Group (CBG) (didja know you can make a soft-kill of the meat portion of a plane using an Aegis radar unit to about 15 miles or so? betcha didn’t know that those ships put out that much power .) and, yeah, all the people talking about how vulnerable a CBG is just don’t have, or aren’t acknowledging all the facts.
Not that I really want to test the full capabilities of said CBG, but… yeah…
Seriously, I have heard it speculated that, in real trouble, a US nuclear carrier can (and may) leave its escorts behind.
And there is also some speculation (based on not-so-Wild Assed Guesses) that our sub fleet is much more fleet than people believe. Be a bit noisy, but… Based on simple understanding of hull geometries. Same understanding of hull geometries of many of the Chicom’s sub hulls show them as actually being limited to close to their official top speeds, if they can actually hold together that long.
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