Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship
The Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy were the first amphibious assault ships designed and built under the SCB 157 characteristics as dedicated helicopter carriers, capable of operating up to 20 helicopters to carry up to 1,800 marines ashore.[1] They were named for battles featuring the United States Marine Corps, starting with the Battle of Iwo Jima. The first ship of the class was commissioned in 1961, and the last was decommissioned in 2002. The hull classification of "LPH" stands for "Landing ship, Personnel, Helicopter".
USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) | |
Class overview | |
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Builders: | |
Operators: | United States Navy |
Preceded by: | Essex class (some ships converted) |
Succeeded by: | Tarawa class |
In commission: | 1961–2002 |
Completed: | 7 |
Active: | 0 |
Laid up: | 0 |
Retired: | 7 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Amphibious assault ship (LPH) |
Displacement: | |
Length: | 592 ft (180 m) |
Beam: | 84 ft (26 m) |
Draft: | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h) |
Troops: | 2,157 |
Complement: | 667 |
Armament: |
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Aviation facilities: |
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Ships of this class participated in several conflicts and peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations:
- Nuclear weapons test support, Johnston Atoll 1962
- Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
- Vietnam War 1963-1973
- Dominican Civil War 1965
- Gemini and Apollo spacecraft recovery 1966-1975
- Iran hostage crisis 1980
- Multinational Force in Lebanon, 1982-1983
- Operation Urgent Fury, Grenada, 1983
- Operation Earnest Will, Persian Gulf 1987-1988
- Operation Sharp Edge, Liberia, 1990
- First Gulf War 1990-1991
- Operation Eastern Exit, Somalia, 1991
- Operation Restore Hope, Somalia, 1993
- Operation Continue Hope, Somalia, 1994
- Operation Deny Flight, Bosnia, 1994
- Operation Uphold Democracy, Haiti, 1994
- Operation Vigilant Warrior, Kuwait, 1994
- Operation Assured Response, Liberia, 1996
One ship of this class, USS Guam (LPH-9), was used in a 1970-1974 Sea Control Ship experiment to test the concept of a smaller aircraft carrier using V/STOL aircraft.
Another ship, USS Inchon (LPH-12), was converted to a mine countermeasures ship which hosted mine sweeping helicopters.
The hull design of the Iwo Jima-class also became the basis of the slightly larger Blue Ridge class of amphibious command ships.[2]
Ships of the class:
Name | Hull number | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Iwo Jima | LPH-2 | Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton | 2 April 1959 | 17 September 1960 | 26 August 1961 | Broken up at Brownsville, 1996 |
Okinawa | LPH-3 | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia | 1 April 1960 | 19 August 1961 | 14 April 1962 | Sunk as target, 6 June 2002 |
Guadalcanal | LPH-7 | 1 September 1961 | 16 March 1963 | 20 July 1963 | Sunk as target, 19 May 2005 | |
Guam | LPH-9 | 15 November 1962 | 22 August 1964 | 16 January 1965 | Sunk as target, 16 October 2001 | |
Tripoli | LPH-10 | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula | 15 June 1964 | 31 July 1965 | 6 August 1966 | Broken up at Brownsville, 2018 |
New Orleans | LPH-11 | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia | 1 March 1966 | 3 February 1968 | 16 November 1968 | Sunk as target, 10 July 2010 |
Inchon | LPH-12 | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascasgoula | 8 April 1968 | 24 May 1969 | 20 June 1970 | Sunk as target, 5 December 2004 |
Five non-Iwo Jima-class ships were converted from various, already active escort carriers, given LPH hull codes and numbered in with the class;
Name | Hull number | Class |
---|---|---|
Block Island | LPH-1 | Commencement Bay |
Boxer | LPH-4 | Essex |
Princeton | LPH-5 | Essex |
Thetis Bay | LPH-6 | Casablanca |
Valley Forge | LPH-8 | Essex |
Popular culture
One of the Iwo Jima-class ships served as the fieldsite in Edwin Hutchins's classic cognitive science study Cognition in the Wild.[3] Although Hutchins does not mention the ship class by name, on p. 7 he characterizes it as a 603-foot-long (184 m) amphibious helicopter carrier.
References
- Friedman, Norman (2002). U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History. Illustrated Design Histories. Naval Institute Press. pp. 351–362. ISBN 1-55750-250-1. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
- Friedman, Norman (2002). U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History. Illustrated Design Histories. Naval Institute Press. pp. 428–429. ISBN 1-55750-250-1. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
- Hutchins, Edwin (1995). Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press.