The American Navy will receive the twelfth ship of the San Antonio type. Yesterday, on August 22, the press service of the US Department of Defense reported that a solemn ceremony of christening the landing transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) was held at the Ingalls Division shipyard of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
The USS Fort Lauderdale was the twelfth of thirteen planned ships of the LPD 17 Flight I project. In addition, it is planned to build 13 more of the same type of "paratroopers" for the US Navy according to the updated LPD-17 Flight II project.
USS Fort Lauderdale during launching, March 18, 2021
Image source: navalnews.com
The length of the San Antonio-type ship is 208 m, the width is 32 m, the draft at full load does not exceed 7 m.The ship with a displacement of 25,300 tons is capable of reaching speeds of up to 20 knots (41 km/h) and can simultaneously transport two LCAC landing craft, one LCU landing boat, fourteen amphibious armored personnel carriers and at least 700 paratroopers. In addition, there is a helipad in its aft part, on which up to four helicopters or two MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor planes can be based. The crew of the transport-dock consists of 350 people.
A computer model of a San Antonio-type ship
Image source: skyscrapercity.com
The San Antonio-class ships have only protective armament: two Mk44 Bushmaster II artillery launchers of 30 mm caliber, two Mk 41 rocket launchers designed to hit air targets, as well as several M2 Browning twin machine gun launchers. The cost of building one ship is $1.6 billion.
