TSAMTO, June 15. Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced the baptism ceremony of the Richard M McCool Jr. (LPD-29) class "San Antonio", which took place on June 11 at the enterprise of its Ingalls Shipbuilding division.
LPD-29 is the 13th and last San Antonio-class ship to be built by Ingalls Shipbuilding for the U.S. Navy. A contract worth $218,102 million for the purchase of materials and equipment with long production times for the construction of the ship was signed with HII in June 2017. Steel cutting for LPD-29 began at the Pascagoula plant (pcs.Mississippi) on July 30, 2018, the keel authentication ceremony took place in April 2019, launching – in January 2022.
As reported by TSAMTO, the implementation of the program for the construction of the San Antonio-class DVKD began in 1993 and initially provided for the supply of 11 ships to the US Navy, which should replace the outdated LPD-4, LSD-36, LKA-113 and LST-1179 class transports. Later, it was decided to place orders for the construction of two more San Antonio-class DVKDs – LPD-28 Fort Lauderdale and LPD-29 Richard M McCool Jr.
The lead ship of the series was transferred to the US Navy in 2005. To date, 12 DVKDs have been adopted by the US Navy: San Antonio (LPD-17), New Orleans (LPD-18), Mesa Verde (LPD-19), Green Bay (LPD-20), New York (LPD-21), San Diego (LPD-22), Anchorage (LPD-23), Arlington (LPD-24), Somerset (LPD-25), John P. Murtagh (LPD-26), Portland (LPD-27) and Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28).
In March 2019, Ingalls Shipbuilding signed a contract with the US Navy for the development of a working design and construction of the first LPD-17 Flight II version of the LPD-30 Harrisburg. On April 3, 2020, a contract worth $1.508 billion was signed with the company for the development of a working project and the construction of the LPD-31 Pittsburgh.
Now LPD-30 "Harrisburg" is under construction. Construction of the LPD-31 Pittsburgh is scheduled to begin in the near future.
The San Antonio-class DVKDs are an element of the "triad" of delivery vehicles of the USMC expeditionary units to the place of combat operations, which also includes MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor planes and new generation EFV floating armored personnel carriers. DVKD can take on board up to 800 Marines (the standard number is 699) and ensure their landing on the coast using landing hovercraft (LCAC), conventional landing boats, helicopters or aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing. DVKD can also be used to support humanitarian operations, provide assistance to victims of natural disasters.
