USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3)

USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3)
Lewis B. Puller at Naval Station Norfolk in April 2016
History
Namesake: Lewis B. Puller, Sr.[1][2]
Awarded: February 2012[3]
Builder: NASSCO – San Diego, California[1]
Cost: $134.9 million US$ (FY 2014)[4]
Laid down: 5 November 2013[1][5]
Launched: 6 November 2014[6]
Sponsored by: Martha Puller Downs[7]
Christened: 7 February 2015[7]
Acquired: 12 June 2015[8][9]
Identification:
Status: In Service
Notes: Operated by Military Sealift Command
General characteristics
Displacement: Approx. 78,000 long tons (87,000 short tons) fully loaded[10]
Length: 764 ft (233 m)[11][Note 1]
Beam: 164 ft (50 m)[12]
Draft: 25.5 ft (7.8 m)[12]
Installed power: Diesel-electric[12]
Propulsion:
Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)[1][12]
Range: 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi)[1]
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 Accommodation barge (298 mission-related personnel max.)[3]
Complement: 34 civilian mariners[12]
Armament: None[12]
Aircraft carried: Up to 4 CH-53 heavy-lift transport helicopters[Note 2]
Aviation facilities: Helicopter landing deck and hangar[3]
Notes: Afloat forward staging base variant[3]

USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3), (formerly T-MLP-3/T-AFSB-1)[14][15] is the first purpose-built Expeditionary Mobile Base (previously Mobile Landing Platform, then Afloat Forward Staging Base) vessel for the United States Navy. It will be one of two Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) variants of the U.S. Navy's planned fleet of Expeditionary Transfer Dock vessels. Lewis B. Puller is slated to replace USS Ponce (AFSB-(I)-15) currently operating with the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf in 2016.[1][5]

Background

Lewis B. Puller and its sister ship Hershel "Woody" Williams (T-ESB-4) will differ significantly from the U.S. Navy's first two Expeditionary Transfer Dock support vessels, Montford Point (T-ESD-1) and John Glenn (T-ESD-2). These two ships act as a floating base or transfer station that can be prepositioned off the target area.[16] Lewis B. Puller and Hershel "Woody" Williams will serve as Expeditionary Sea Bases to support a variety of low-intensity missions. This allows more expensive, high-value amphibious warfare ships and surface combatant warships to be re-tasked for more demanding operational missions for the U.S. Navy.[3] These ESB variants are slated to operate in the Middle East and the Pacific Ocean.[11]

Lewis B. Puller will be operated by the Military Sealift Command. Its designation prefix will be "USNS."[16] The crew will consist of civilian mariners under contract with U.S. maritime unions. Lewis B. Puller is intended to replace USS Ponce, the U.S. Navy's interim AFSB support ship.[3]

Namesake

USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3) is the second ship named after Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller, USMC. A distinguished combat veteran of the Banana Wars, World War II and the Korean War, Puller is the most decorated individual in the history of the United States Marine Corps.[1][2]

Ship re-designation

Effective 4 September 2015, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus officially announced the creation of a new ship designation, "E" for expeditionary support. Mobile Landing Platforms (MLPs) will be called Expeditionary Transfer Dock, or ESD; and the Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) variant of the MLP will be called Expeditionary Mobile Base, or ESB. The new designation was pursuant to a memorandum sent to Secretary Mabus from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert dated 31 August 2015.[14]

Design features

A Sikorsky MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter landing on Lewis B. Puller's flight deck in June 2016
Artist impression of USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3).

The overall design of Lewis B. Puller is based on the hull of the civilian Alaska-class oil tanker.[11] Lewis B. Puller will be outfitted with support facilities for its mine-sweeping, special operations, and other expeditionary missions. An accommodation barge will also be carried to support up to 298 additional mission-related personnel, including special-operations teams.[3][5]

Lewis B. Puller's aviation facilities include a flight deck with landing spots for two heavy-lift transport CH-53 helicopters, as well as additional deck space for two more CH-53s. Lewis B. Puller will also have a helicopter hangar, an ordnance storage magazine, underway replenishment facilities, and deck space for mission-related equipment storage, including up to four Mk 105 minesweeping hydrofoil sleds.[3][5]

GE Power Conversion will provide complete electric power, propulsion, and vessel automation systems for all MLP ships. This integrated power system (IPS) will also involve the ship's tandem propulsion motor powered by variable-frequency drives, Harmonic Filters, and high-voltage switchboards.[13]

Unlike the ESDs which lower the entire ship until their boat decks are awash, ESBs use cranes to raise and lower small boats of up to 11 metric tons to the water from their mission deck.[17][18][19]

Lewis B. Puller is the first non-combatant ship to have the new Navy N-30 class passive fire protection system installed.[20]

Embarked aircraft

On 16 January 2014, at the Surface Naval Association's national symposium, the head of NAVSEA's Strategic and Theater Sealift program, Captain Henry Stevens, announced that the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft will be evaluated for potential operations on board the Expeditionary Mobile Base (ESB) variant of the Expeditionary Transfer Dock. Currently, the testing and certification of MH-53E helicopters for minesweeping operations from ESB support ships are slated to begin during fiscal year 2016. Additionally, Captain Stevens noted that the F-35B STOVL strike fighter was not currently being considered for ESB operations because of concerns about exhaust heat potentially damaging the flight decks of U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships.[21]

The V-22 capability was added before the maiden deployment in order to support USAF SOF CV-22s.[22]

History

Construction

Post-launch (Nov. 6, 2014)

The United States Navy ordered T-ESB-3 in February 2012 as part of the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriation for the U.S. Department of Defense via the National Defense Sealift Fund (NDSF).[3][4]

The keel-laying ceremony for Lewis B. Puller took place at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, California, on 5 November 2013. The keel of Lewis B. Puller was authenticated by Elizabeth Glueck, the wife of Lieutenant General Kenneth J. Glueck, Jr., the commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command.[1][11][23] Mrs. Glueck welded her initials onto a steel plate that will be permanently affixed to the ship, remaining a part of the Lewis B. Puller throughout its service life.[23]

Lewis B. Puller was launched and floated-off at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard on 6 November 2014. The launching dock was slowly flooded with water until it could freely float by itself.[6] The ship was christened on 7 February 2015, and it was delivered on 12 June 2015.[9][24]

Lewis B. Puller set sail from San Diego to Norfolk via Cape Horn, arriving 13 October 2015 to begin its testing and evaluation phase. The ship is currently configured for mine-sweeping support but is also under consideration to support special operations forces (SOF) missions. Lewis B. Puller is slated to join the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf in late 2016 or early 2017.[25]

On 14 January 2016, the Secretary of the Navy announced that Lewis B. Puller's sister-ship would be named Hershel Woody Williams (T-ESB-4) during a ceremony in Charleston, West Virginia.[26]

Deployment

On 10 July 2017, Lewis B. Puller departed from Naval Station Norfolk for its first operational deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet's area of operations. The ship will be permanently deployed overseas where maintenance, repairs and crew swaps will take place in theater.[27]

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ↑ NavSourve.org lists the overall length as 785 ft (239 m).
  2. ↑ MV-22 tilt-rotor transport aircraft are under consideration. See Embarked aircraft section of this article for details.
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Keel Laid for Future USNS Lewis B. Puller". NNS131105-20. Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 James Marconi (5 January 2012). "Navy Names First Three Mobile Landing Platform Ships". Military Sealift Command Public Affairs. United States Navy. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "U.S. Navy Program Guide 2013" (PDF). United States Navy. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013. See pages 101–102
  4. 1 2 "Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) – Afloat Forward Staging Base". Military. GlobalSecurity.org. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Richard Scott (16 February 2014). "US MLP completes acceptance trials". IHS Jane's Defence Weekly. Jane's Information Group. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  6. 1 2 GD NASSCO Successfully Launched 1st Afloat Forwarding Staging Base (AFSB) variant MLP - Navyrecognition.com, 12 November 2014
  7. 1 2 GD NASSCO Christened the 1st Afloat Forward Staging Base variant MLP USNS Lewis B. Puller - Navyrecognition.com, 7 February 2015
  8. ↑ "Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3)". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  9. 1 2 Sam LaGrone (12 June 2014). "Afloat Forward Staging Base Lewis B. Puller Delivers to Navy". USNI News. United States Naval Institute. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Mobile Landing Platform – MLP". Fact Sheet. United States Navy. 14 November 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Updated: Keel Laid for First Dedicated Afloat Forward Staging Base". USNI News Blog. United States Naval Institute. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-MLP-3)". USNI News Blog. NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive. 29 March 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  13. 1 2 Lauren Maffeo (3 August 2011). "General Dynamics NASSCO Commissions Converteam to Supply Power Systems to US Navy". GovCon Executive. Retrieved 5 December 2013. General Dynamics NASSCO has commissioned Converteam to supply integrated power systems to the U.S. Navy, a move that follows the engineering solutions company's multimillion-dollar contract to design and supply the complete electric power, propulsion and vessel automation system for the Mobile Landing Platform program.
  14. 1 2 "Navy Renames Three Ship Classes, Creates ‘Expeditionary’ Designator in Naming System". USNI News Blog. United States Naval Institute. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  15. ↑ http://www.realcleardefense.com/topic/e/Expeditionary_mobile_base_Lewis_B._Puller_(T-ESB-3)/
  16. 1 2 "The US Navy's Mobile Landing Platform Ships". Defense Industry Daily. Watershed Publishing. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  17. ↑ Mesta, Bill (21 June 2016). "USNS Lewis B. Puller: The Future of Expeditionary Minehunting". www.navy.mil. Military Sealift Command Public Affairs. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  18. ↑ Eckstein, Megan (2 November 2015). "Expeditionary Mobile Base Chesty Puller May Receive SOF Upgrades Before 5th Fleet Deployment". news.usni.org. USNI News. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  19. ↑ Rogoway, Tyler (2 November 2016). "America’s Huge Afloat Forward Staging Base In Action". www.thedrive.com. Time Inc. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  20. ↑ "San Diego Marine & NASSCO Partner Yet Again For US Navy Auxiliary Ship". pcg.com. Performance Contracting Group. Fall 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  21. ↑ Carlo Muñoz (16 January 2014). "SNA 2014: Navy Eyes Osprey Flights for AFSB Fleet". United States Naval Institute. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  22. ↑ Eckstein, Megan (12 July 2017). "Expeditionary Sea Base USNS Lewis B. Puller Departs for Maiden Deployment". news.usni.org. USNI News. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  23. ↑ "General Dynamics NASSCO Delivers USNS Lewis B. Puller MLP 3 AFSB". 14 June 2015.
  24. ↑ Megan Eckstein (2 November 2015). "Expeditionary Mobile Base Chesty Puller May Receive SOF Upgrades Before 5th Fleet Deployment". USNI News. United States Naval Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  25. ↑ Affairs, This story was written by Secretary of the Navy Public. "Secretary of the Navy Names Expeditionary Sea Base Ship". www.navy.mil. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  26. ↑ Expeditionary Sea Base USNS Lewis B. Puller Begins First Operational Deployment - Navyrecognition.com, 12 July 2017
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