The Tarawa class was a ship class of amphibious assault ships/LHA operated by
the United States Navy. Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between
1971 and 1980; another four ships were planned, but later canceled. As of March
2015, all vessels have been decommissioned. The class was replaced
by the America-class amphibious assault ships from 2014 onward.
Design The vessels have a full load
displacement of 39,967 tonnes. Each ship is 834 feet long, with a beam of 131.9
feet, and a draft of 25.9 feet. Propulsion is provided by two Combustion
Engineering boilers, connected to two Westinghouse turbines. These supply
70,000 horsepower to the ship's two propeller shafts. A Tarawa-class vessel
can reach a maximum speed of 24 knots, and has a maximum range of 10,000
nautical miles at 20 knots. In addition to the main propulsion system, the ships
are fitted with a bow thruster. As of 1998, the ships' armament consists
of a Mark 49 RAM surface-to-air missile system, two Vulcan Phalanx close-in
weapons systems, six Mark 242 25 mm automatic cannons, and eight 12.7 mm
machine guns. Previously, the amphibious warships were fitted with 2 Mark 25 Sea
Sparrow missile systems, and three 5-inch Mk 45 lightweight guns in bow
sponsons and port aft sponson. Countermeasures and decoys include four
Mark 36 SRBOC launchers, a SLQ-25 Nixie towed torpedo decoy, a Sea Gnat unit,
SLQ-49 chaff decoys. The number of helicopters carried by
each vessel was up to 19 Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallions, 26 Boeing Vertol CH-46
Sea Knight, or a mix of the two. The 820-by-118.1-foot flight deck is fitted
with two aircraft lifts, and up to nine Sea Stallions or 12 Sea Knights can be
operated simultaneously. With a small amount of modification, the ships could
carry and operate up to six McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II jump-jets.
The Tarawa-class ships are designed to embark a reinforced battalion of the
United States Marine Corps and their equipment. Onboard accommodation is
provided for up to 1,703 marines, while 33,730 cubic feet is provided for the
battalion's vehicles, and 116,900 cubic feet is allocated for stores and other
equipment. As well as deploying by helicopters, personnel and equipment can
be embarked or offloaded via a 268-by-78-foot well deck in each ship's
stern. Up to four LCU 1610 landing craft can be transported in and operated from
the well deck, along with other designs and combinations of landing craft.
The Tarawa design was later repeated for the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships,
with some changes. The main changes to the latter eight-ship class include the
lower placement of the ship's bridge aboard the Wasps, the relocation of the
command and control facilities to inside the hull, modifications to allow the
operation of Harrier jump-jets and Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft,
and removal of the 5-inch guns and their sponsons to increase the overall size of
the flight deck. Construction
All five warships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, at this company's shipyard
in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Tarawa was approved for construction during Fiscal
Year 1969, with two more ships of this class ordered by Congress in the 1970
and 1971 fiscal years. Design problems emerged early in the LHA
program and contrary to the intent of the Total Package Procurement concept,
the Navy became heavily involved in the design process. Nine ships were
originally contracted for the Tarawa class, but that number was reduced to
five in January 1971. The other four ships were never built for the Navy.
Work on the first warship of this class, USS Tarawa, began on 15 November 1971,
and she was commissioned into the Navy on 29 May 1976. The last of the five
ships, USS Peleliu, was completed on 3 May 1980.
Operational history Decommissioning and replacement
The Tarawas began leaving service in 2005. By April 2011, four of the five
amphibious assault ships had been decommissioned, leaving only Peleliu in
active service. Peleliu was decommissioned on 31 March 2015 in San
Diego. The Tarawa class is to be replaced by
the America class. The first America-class vessel was delivered and
commissioned in 2014. Ships
Citations References
Bishop, Chris; Chant, Christopher. Aircraft Carriers: the world's greatest
naval vessels and their aircraft. London: MBI. ISBN 0-7603-2005-5. OCLC
56646560. Sharpe, Richard, ed.. Jane's Fighting
Ships 1998–99. Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane's Information Group. ISBN 0-7106-1795-X.
OCLC 39372676. Wertheim, Eric, ed.. The Naval Institute
Guide to Combat Fleets of the World: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems.
Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-955-2. OCLC 140283156.
External links The USS Tarawa Amphibious Assault Ship
Museum