Huntington Ingalls Industrie's Ingalls Shipbuilding division announced Jan. 7 the
successful launch of amphibious transport dock Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29).
Richard M. McCool Jr. is the 13th LPD in the San Antonio class of amphibious assault force ships
and will support U.S. amphibious assault, special operations and expeditionary warfare missions.
Kari Wilkinson, president of HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division said,
“The LPD class ships, like all of our programs, are critically important to
U.S. national security. In addition, thousands of Americans, from engineers to electricians,
have worked on LPD 29 over the years. Ingalls Shipbuilding is proud to build
them and even more proud of the talented people that make up our shipbuilding team.”
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why USS Richard M. McCool Jr will provide U.S Navy with
a significant tactical edge? Let's get into the details.
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USS Richard M. McCool Jr will be capable of transporting U.S. Marines,
amphibious vehicles, conventional landing craft, and rotary aircraft.
Richard M. McCool Jr would provide a high-quality command and control
capability and improved interoperability between U.S forces and partners in the region.
The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ship is expected to displace 25,000 tons when fully loaded.
The San Antonio class was designed to provide the U.S Navy and U.S. Marine Corps with a modern,
sea-based platform that is networked, survivable, and built to operate with
21st-century transformational platforms, such as the MV-22 Osprey.
The San Antonio class has significant survivability features and the class was designed
to minimize radar signature which makes it hard to detect & track. The class has a hardened structure
so that it can absorb shocks and has improved nuclear blast and fragmentation protection.
USS Richard M. McCool Jr like other vessels of this class is fitted with the integrated Ship
Self-Defense System (SSDS). The system fuses the radars and other sensors and
controls the weapons systems for an automated fast reaction capability against air threats.
The Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensors (AEM/S) System mast, a 93-foot-high octagonal structure 35 feet
in diameter, is constructed of a multi-layer frequency-selective composite material.
It is designed to permit the ship's own sensor frequencies
with very low loss while reflecting other frequencies.
The tapered octagonal shape of the AEM/S is designed to reduce the radar cross-section,
and enclosing the antennas provides improved performance and greatly reduces maintenance costs.
USS Richard M. McCool Jr has several key components that enable specific functionality :
1. The Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) which is a class of air-cushion vehicles
(hovercraft), is used as landing craft by the United States Navy's Assault Craft Units and the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). They transport weapons systems, equipment,
cargo and personnel of the assault elements of the Marine Air/Ground Task Force
both from ship to shore and across the beach. The warship can accommodate two of these.
2. Amphibious Assault Vehicle is an armored assault amphibious full-tracked
landing vehicle. The vehicle carries troops in water operations from ship to shore,
through rough water and surf zone. It also carries troops to inland objectives after ashore. The
warship will be able to carry up to 14 of these. 3. USS Richard M. McCool Jr would be launch
or land up to two MV-22 Osprey simultaneously and can accommodate 4 MV-22s on the flight deck
and one in the hangar deck. The Osprey is an American multi-mission,
tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL),
and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the
functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance
of a turboprop aircraft. Osprey can accommodate 24 troops (seated) and 32
troops (floor loaded). So, V-22 Osprey could be used to carry special ops personnel.
USS Richard M. McCool Jr possesses multiple weapons for self-defense.
It is equipped with two Bushmaster II 30 mm close-in-guns. The gun has a rate of
fire of 200 rounds per minute and an effective range of 3.1 miles or 5 km.
It has two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers.
RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight,
infrared homing surface-to-air missile. It has an operational range of 9 km (5.6 mi)
There are two Mk 41 eight-cell VLS for quad-packed ESSMs. RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM)
is used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. It has a range of 31 miles or 50 km.
Several twin M2 Browning machine gun turrets are also present.
Apart from the general capabilities, the ability of the USS Richard M. McCool Jr
to deploy special forces adds another important dimension.
Special forces operatives can take on many different types of missions
including intelligence gathering, which could be used as a base to plan for a tactical undertaking.
It remains to be seen how USS Richard M. McCool Jr where it will be deployed
and exactly what missions it will be assigned to it.
But there is no doubt, the addition of USS Richard M. McCool Jr will definitely add a tactical edge
and provide US Navy with the capability to carry out different kinds of complex maritime missions.