America Sets Sail: New Class Of Amphib, LHA-6, Leaves Shipyard

After five years in the shipyard, the first of a new class of Navy amphibious warship set sail today from its Pascagoula, Miss. birthsite for San Francisco, headed for the fleet. LHA-6 will be commissioned as the USS America this October.

America has been controversial in the military and on this website. I’ve argued the LHA-6 is a dead end in naval design, because in order to carry more aircraft — MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, F-35B Joint Strike Fighter jump-jets — it sacrifices the well deck required to launch landing craft and amtracs, which sort of takes the “amphibious” out of “amphibious warship.”

Regular contributor and recognized expert Robbin Laird has argued that the class’s increased airpower is well worth the trade-off and makes it invaluable for missions like 2011′s raids on Libya, which were launched by amphibs in absence of a full-sized aircraft carrier.

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