USS Wasp (LHD-1)

History
USS Wasp with MV-22 Osprey in the Gulf of Aqaba on 4 October 2007
United States
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
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: 3 x MH-60S Knighthawk 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

External video
F-35B tests on USS Wasp in 2011
Short TakeOff
BF-02 vertical landing
BF-04 vertical landing

USS Wasp (LHD-1) is a U.S. Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship. She is the lead ship of her class, is the tenth USN vessel to bear the name, and was the flagship of the Second Fleet. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 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. The AV-8B Plus used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) was last produced in 2003, and USMC expects to operate its Harriers until 2025.

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, the tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.

Since 2004, in a period when all the rest of the USN's flattops have been heavily tasked and often kept on lengthy deployments, Wasp has not been sent on an extended deployment, and since 2011 the ship has been assigned to Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35B Lightning II testing.

In June 2016, Wasp deployed for the first time in 11 years with a six-month tour to the Middle East In October 2016, the US Navy announced that Wasp will deploy to Sasebo, Japan in late 2017, replacing her sister ship Bonhomme Richard, which will be moved to San Diego, California.

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Wikipedia