USS Anchorage (LPD-23)

USS Anchorage (LPD-23,) underway in December 2014.
History
Name:	Anchorage
Namesake:	City of Anchorage, Alaska
Awarded:	1 June 2006
Builder:	Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Avondale Shipyard, Avondale, Louisiana
Laid down:	24 September 2007
Launched:	12 February 2011
Christened:	14 May 2011
Acquired:	17 September 2012
Commissioned:	4 May 2013
Homeport:	San Diego, CA
Status:	in active service, as of 2016[update]
General characteristics
Class and type:	San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock
Displacement:	25,000 long tons (25,000 t) full
Length:	684 ft (208 m) oa 661 ft (201 m) wl
Beam:	105 ft (32 m)
Draft:	23 ft (7.0 m)
Installed power:	4 × Colt-Pielstick diesel engines 40,000 hp (30 MW)
Propulsion:	2 × single reversing reduction gears 2 × inboard rotating fixed pitch propellers
Speed:	22 kn (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried:	2 × LCACs (air cushion) or 1 × LCU (conventional)
Troops:	66 officers, 625 enlisted
Complement:	33 officers, 411 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-48E AN/SPQ-9B AN/SPS-73
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-25A NIXIE AN/SLQ-32Q(V)2 MK 36 SRBOC MK 53 / NULKA
Armament:	1 × Mk 41 16 cell VLS 2 × Mk31 Mod0 RAM launchers 2 × 30 mm (1.2 in) Mk46 Mod1 chain guns 2 × Mk 26 Mod17 .50 cal machine guns
Aircraft carried:	Hangar: 1 × CH-53E Super Stallion or 2 × CH-46 Sea Knights or 1 × MV-22 Osprey or 3 × UH-1Y Venoms/AH-1J SeaCobras Landing: 2 × CH-53E Super Stallions or 4 × UH-1Y Venoms/AH-1J SeaCobras or 4 × CH-46 Sea Knights or 2 × MV-22 Ospreys or 1 × AV-8B Harrier

USS Anchorage (LPD-23), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the second ship of the United States Navy to be namesake of the city of Anchorage, Alaska.

Anchorage's keel was laid down on 24 September 2007, at the Avondale Shipyard near New Orleans, Louisiana, then owned by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. The ship was launched on 12 February 2011.; sponsored by Mrs. Annette Conway, wife of Gen. James T. Conway, USMC (Ret.) former Commandant of the Marine Corps; She was christened two months later, on 14 May — the first ship christened by Huntington Ingalls Industries since Northrop Grumman spun off its shipbuilding divisions as a separate company. The ship's sponsor is Annette Conway, wife of former Marine Corps Commandant General James T. Conway. The ship was formally delivered and accepted by the US Navy on 17 September 2012.Anchorage was commissioned 4 May 2013, in her eponymous city.

In early August 2014, Anchorage participated in Underway Recovery Test 2, rehearsing scenarios for recovering an Orion space capsule.

Senior project managers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who oversaw the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) for the uncrewed Orion spacecraft, conferred with Rear Admiral Fernandez L. Ponds, commander Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3, and Captain William R. Grotewold, the ship’s commanding officer, on board San Diego at her home port of San Diego, 12 September 2013. They discussed plans to retrieve Orion’s space capsule during her splashdown in a scheduled test off the coast of Southern California.