| Career | |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | John Murtha |
| Awarded: | 1 April 2011 [1] |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock |
| Displacement: | 25,000 tons full |
| Length: | 208.5 m (684 ft) overall, 201.4 m (661 ft) waterline |
| Beam: | 31.9 m (105 ft) extreme, 29.5 m (97 ft) waterline |
| Draft: | 7 m (23 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Four Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, two shafts, 40,000 hp (30 MW) |
| Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h) |
| Boats and landing craft carried: |
Two LCACs (air cushion) or one LCU (conventional) |
| Capacity: | 699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge to 800 total. |
| Complement: | 28 officers, 333 enlisted |
| Armament: | Two 30 mm Bushmaster II cannons, for surface threat defense; two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for air defense |
| Aircraft carried: | Four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft may be launched or recovered simultaneously. |
USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26), will be the 10th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship of the United States Navy, and will be named in honor of Congressman John Murtha (1932–2010) of Pennsylvania. A former United States Marine Corps officer, Murtha was the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1974. Murtha served as either chairman or ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee from 1989 to 2010.
All other ships of the class are named for American cities; however, two months after Murtha's death, on 9 April 2010, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signed an official memo to the Chief of Naval Operations, designating the naming of LPD-26 as the John P. Murtha.[2] The Navy Times said the official announcement "added fuel to an already smoldering backlash",[3] because of Murtha's call for withdrawing from the Iraq War in 2005, and his public pre-trial condemnation of the Marines involved in the Haditha incident.
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
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