| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Wasp |
| Awarded: | 28 February 1984 |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Laid down: | 30 May 1985 |
| Launched: | 4 August 1987 |
| Commissioned: | 29 July 1989 |
| Homeport: | Norfolk, Virginia |
| Motto: | Honor, Tradition, Excellence" |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| Badge: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Wasp-class amphibious assault ship |
| Displacement: | 40,532 long tons (41,182 t) full load |
| Length: | 844 ft (257 m) |
| Beam: | 106 ft (32 m) |
| Draft: | 26.5 ft (8.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines, 70,000 shp (52 MW) 2 × Boilers, 600 psi (4.1 MPa) 2 × shafts |
| Speed: | 23 knots (26 mph; 43 km/h) |
| Range: | 9,500 nmi (17,600 km) at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h) |
| Troops: | Up to 2,200 Marines |
| Complement: | 1,075 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | • 2 × NATO Sea Sparrow missile systems • 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile systems • 2 × Phalanx CIWS • 3 × 25 mm Mk 38 cannons • .50-cal M2HB machine guns |
| Aircraft carried: | Variable by mission: • 12 × CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters • 4 × CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters • 6 × AV-8B Harrier attack aircraft • 3 × UH-1N Huey helicopters • 4 × AH-1Z Viper helicopters • MV-22 Osprey VTOL tiltrotor aircraft |
USS Wasp (LHD 1) is a U.S. Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship, the tenth to bear the name, the flagship of the Second Fleet and the lead ship of her class. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Navy-Marine Corps team's newest amphibious warship has as its primary mission the support of a Marine Landing Force. USS Wasp and her sister ships are the first specifically designed to accommodate new Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) for fast troop movement over the beach and Harrier II (AV-8B) Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) jets which provide close air support for the assault force. Wasp, which is 257 m long (843 ft) with a beam of 32 meters (105 ft), also accommodates the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.
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To carry out its primary mission, USS Wasp has an assault support system that synchronizes the simultaneous horizontal and vertical flow of troops, cargo and vehicles throughout the ship. Two aircraft elevators service the hangar bay and flight deck. Six cargo elevators, each 4 by 8 meters (13 by 26 ft), are used to transport material and supplies from the 3,000-cubic-meter (110,000 cu ft) cargo holds throughout the ship to staging areas on the flight deck, hangar bay and vehicle storage area. Cargo is transferred to waiting landing craft docked within the ship's 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2), 81-meter long (266 ft) well deck. Helicopters in the hangar bay or on the flight deck are cargo-loaded by forklift.
Wasp has medical and dental facilities capable of providing intensive medical assistance to 600 casualties, whether combat incurred or brought aboard ship during humanitarian missions. The corpsmen also provide routine medical/dental care to the crew and embarked personnel. Major medical facilities include four main and two emergency operating rooms, four dental operating rooms, x-ray rooms, a blood bank, laboratories, and patient wards. In addition, three battle dressing stations are located throughout the ship, as well as a casualty collecting area at the flight deck level. Medical elevators rapidly transfer casualties from the flight deck and hangar bay to the medical facilities.
For the comfort of the 1,075 crewmembers and 2,200 embarked troops, all manned spaces and berthing areas are individually heated and air conditioned. Berthing areas are subdivided to provide semi-private spaces without adversely affecting efficiency. Deck and wall coverings are decorative but also serviceable and easy to maintain. Messing areas facilitate rapid dining in a restaurant atmosphere. Onboard recreational facilities include a Library Multi-Media Resource Center with Internet access, a weight room,and satellite television capabilities.
USS Wasp's two steam propulsion plants — the largest currently in operation in the U.S. Navy — generate a total of 400 tons of steam per hour. The propulsion system develops 70,000 shaft horsepower (52 MW), powering the ship to speeds in excess of 22 knots (25.3 mph or 41 km/h). USS Wasp was built using more than 21,000 tons of steel, 400 tons of aluminum, 400 miles (640 km) of electrical/electronic cables, 80 miles (130 km) of piping and tubing of various types and sizes, and 10 miles (16 km) of ventilation ducting. Wasp weighed more than 27,000 tons when moved onto the Ingalls floating dry-dock on 30 July 1987 for launch on 4 August 1987, becoming the largest man-made object rolled across land.
In February 1993, she left her port on an emergency deployment to Somalia to participate in the United Nations intervention: Operation Restore Hope. Joint Chiefs Chairman, Gen. Colin Powell landed on the ship that April for a discussion of military tactics taking place in and around Mogadishu. Following that, she assisted off the coast of Kuwait for another operation. She later made stops in Toulon, France and Rota, Spain, en route to her home port in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1998, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.
In February 2004, the USS Wasp set sail to take the Marines of BLT 1/6 and HMM-266 Rein to Afghanistan. They arrived at the end of March and offloaded the Marines. They then turned around and went back to the states to pick up the Marines from HMH-461 to take them to Djibouti. After offloading the HMH-461 in Djibouti, they picked up the Marines of HMM-266 Rein from Kuwait in August 2004, and returned to the coast of Norfolk, Virginia mid September 2004.
On 7 July 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney, visited the USS Wasp. He gave a speech honoring the efforts of the USS Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Wasp was the principal attraction at Fleet Week 2007 in New York City.
In September 2007, the USS Wasp sailed to Nicaragua to offer help to the victims of Hurricane Felix.
USS Wasp was the first ship to deploy the V-22 Osprey, doing so in October 2007, by carrying VMM-263's ten MV-22B Ospreys to Iraq to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Wasp also served as the platform for the program's first Sea Trials in December 1990, involving the third and fourth Osprey prototypes.[1]
On October 4, 2009, the USS Wasp deployed from its base at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia on a three month voyage down the Atlantic coast, to the Caribbean as part of the Southern Partnership Station, amphibious with Destroyer Squadron 40 and an embarked security cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force.[2] The 1,100 Sailors and 365 embarked Marines conducted operations and exercises in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of responsibility. The operation, called the Southern Partnership Station is part of "Partnership of the Americas" maritime strategy, which focuses on building interoperability and cooperation in the region to meet common challenges, specifically with matters involving the recent executive orders that United States President Barack Obama addressed on January 22, 2009 of the closing down of Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. The camp which holds hundreds of prisoners suspected of international terrorism is scheduled to close within a year.[3]
In mid-October 2009, The USS Wasp set anchor at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba where the United States Marines that were on board, were assigned to training status for approx 3 months while the USS Wasp went underway.
Since Cuba, the USS Wasp has not docked in Jamaica, contrary to rumors, but has practiced further operations and exercises throughout the Caribbean. USS Wasp returned to Norfolk Naval Station on December 22, 2009.
On June 29, 2010, USS Wasp was one of the 18 international vessels taking part in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian Navy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Canadian and international warships were reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.[4]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| F-35B tests on USS Wasp in 2011 | |
| Short TakeOff | |
| BF-02 vertical landing | |
| BF-04 vertical landing | |
In 2011 the Wasp was modified for F-35B testing, including replacing a Sea Sparrow launcher with monitoring equipment.[5] She returned to sea on 7 July 2011.[6]
On October 3rd, 2011 the "Wasp" had its first F-35B land vertically on her decks during trials. On October 5th 2011 the "Wasp" successfully launched its first F-35B.[7]
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