USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)

History
USS Kearsarge steaming in the Gulf of Aqaba
United States
Name:	USS Kearsarge
Namesake:	USS Kearsarge (1861), a Civil War Sloop
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	6 February 1990
Launched:	26 March 1992
Sponsored by:	Alma Powell
Christened:	16 May 1992
Commissioned:	16 October 1993
Homeport:	Norfolk, Virginia
Identification:	LHD 3
Motto:	Proud—Trustworthy—Bold
Status:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement:	40,500 long tons (41,100 t) full load
Length:	844 ft (257 m)
Beam:	106 ft (32 m)
Draft:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	2 × geared steam turbines, 70,000 shp (52 MW) 2 × boilers, 600 psi (4.1 MPa) 2 × shafts
Speed:	24 knots (28 mph; 44 km/h)
Boats & landing craft carried:	3 × LCAC (LCAC)
Troops:	1,893 Marines
Complement:	104 officers, 1,004 sailors
Armament:	2 × Sea Sparrow missile systems 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile systems 3 × Phalanx CIWS 8 × .50 BMG machine guns
Aircraft carried:	VMM-266 REIN approx. 22 × Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey 6 × AV-8B Harrier II V/STOL attack jets 6 × SH-60F/HH-60H ASW helicopters

USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) is the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy. She is the fifth ship to be named (the fourth actually commissioned) in honor of USS Kearsarge, a sloop-of-war that gained fame during the American Civil War, which was in turn named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire.

Kearsarge's keel was laid down on 6 February 1990 at Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Ingalls built Kearsarge using efficient pre-outfitting and modular construction techniques. Hundreds of smaller sub-assemblies, containing piping, ventilation ducting and other hardware, as well as major machinery equipment, generators, and electrical panels were constructed. The sub-assemblies were then joined with others to form assemblies, which were in turn welded together to form five completed hull and superstructure modules. These giant modules, each weighing thousands of tons, were joined together on land to form the completed ship's hull. The result of this early outfitting was a ship that was over 70 percent complete at launch.

She was launched on 26 March 1992, in a ceremony attended by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell. The warship was christened on 16 May 1992, and commissioned on 16 October 1993.

The assault support system on the ship co-ordinates vertical and horizontal movement of troops, cargo and vehicles. A Monorail system, moving at speeds up to 600 ft/min (3 m/s), transports cargo and supplies from storage and staging areas throughout the ship to a 13,600 square feet (1,260 m²) well deck, which opens to the sea through huge gates in the ship's stern. There, the cargo, troops and vehicles are loaded onto landing craft for transit to the beach. The air cushion landing craft can "fly" out of the dry well deck, or the well deck can be flooded so that conventional landing craft can float out on their way to the beach.

...
Wikipedia