Once a ship passes her builder's trials, she is ready for delivery to the Navy. Many sailors of the first crew, known in Navy tradition as "plank owners," actually join the ship during construction, to assist in the final fitting out and testing. This includes the final step in the manufacturing process, which they call "the Litton Miracle." Under the meticulous supervision of a lady named Annie Gese, the new warship is scrubbed spotless from stem to stern--even in corners and dark spots where inspectors would probably never look. Only then is the ship ready for commissioning in the fleet. As we headed back through the summer heat and humidity, Steve showed me partially assembled modules for USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6, named for John Paul Jones's Revolutionary War frigate) being stacked and made ready for mating as soon as Bataan was floated in 1996.
Litton Ingalls is a busy place, with over a dozen destroyers and LHDs in various stages of assembly and outfitting. Later, Steve and some of the senior Litton Ingalls executives expressed their hope that the next LHD, an as-yet-unnamed seventh ship, would be funded in the coming fiscal year. Less than a month later, they got their wish when the Congress approved LHD-7 as part of the FY-96 budget. This will guarantee the best possible price for the Navy, keep the work force stable, and keep suppliers healthy for future programs. In fact, when shipbuilding executives from the Far East and Europe want new ideas on how to build ships better, they come and look at how Litton Ingalls is doing things in the heart of Mississippi!
Even before a ship is delivered, the Navy has selected her first Captain. A good first skipper can make a ship "happy" or "lucky" and set the tone for every skipper and crew for years to come. As the first commanding officer of Wasp, the Navy chose Captain Len Picotte, who has become a Rear Admiral. Command of an LHD or one of the LHAs is particularly coveted in the Navy, since it is the largest surface vessel that can be commanded by a nonaviator. Because of the variety of missions that an LHD or LHA might draw, the Navy has decreed that if the captain is a surface line officer, the executive officer must be an aviator. This is reversed if the captain is an aviator, so the positions tend to switch off as officers move up and out. From the day she was laid down (May 30th, 1985), USS Wasp has been a lucky, happy ship. Unlike the LHAs, very few problems arose during design and construction. By the end of the Summer of 1987, she had been floated off (August 4th) and christened (September 19th). She passed her trials and was commissioned on July 29th, 1989. She entered into service with ARGs of the Atlantic fleet, and has been there ever since. In the fall of 1996, she goes into her first major overhaul and upgrade.
Let's go aboard the Wasp and get to know her a bit better. We'll enter through the landing craft well deck. As you move into position aft of the Wasp, a couple of things strike you almost immediately. How can anything so big move across the ocean? Then, as a helicopter comes in to land a few yards/meters above your head, you wonder how can anyone land on something so small. As the landing craft comes in to dock, you notice the slight downward tilt to the stern of the ship. This is because the stern gate has been lowered and the aft ballast tanks have been flooded down to provide the smoothly sloping artificial "beach" for the landing craft. If you're standing on the navigation bridge of an LCU, be sure to watch your head if you are over 6 ft/2 m tall. Lined with Douglas fir, the well deck is vast (322 ft/98.1 m long, 50 ft/15.25 m wide, and 28 ft/8.5 m high), but it seems crowded when a pair af LCUs or three LCACs are docked inside. Once the landing craft is beached and the bow ramp is lowered, you walk up a steep non-skid ramp, and you are on the vehicle deck. Following Navy etiquette, we "request permission to come aboard" from the senior officer present.
Walking forward, you enter a stowage area for vehicles of the embarked MEU (SOC). On this deck and the one below are HMMWVs, 5-ton trucks, M 198 155mm field howitzers, and trailers. Though the decks are stressed for armored vehicles as heavy as M1A1 Abrams tanks, AAV-7 amphibious tractors, and wheeled LAVs, you usually find these beasts over on the LSDs or LPDs of an ARG. On the "big deck" assault ship, planners prefer to keep only vehicles that can be lifted by the CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter. Like a parking garage, the vehicle decks are linked by drive-up ramps. You can drive from the lower vehicle deck all the way up to the hangar and flight decks. Despite the vast stowage space, vehicles, cargo and equipment are packed together with only inches/centimeters of clearance. Even a ship as big as Wasp never has enough room for everything a MEU (SOC) commander wants. So the rule is to leave just enough room for a Marine to climb through a vehicle's window, door, or hatch, so that it can be driven out of its parking spot when a space develops. Shuffling vehicles and cargo around the stowage space of an amphibious ship is like that children's puzzle with movable tiles and one empty space. You have to move the tiles around incessantly to reach what's needed. The MEU (SOC) logistics (S-4) staff spends hours on their computers arranging load plans to maximize stowage. But with only 20,900 ft2/1,941.7m2 of vehicle stowage space and 125,000 ft3/ 3,539.3 m3 of cargo space, you need the mind of an accountant with the imagination of an artist to figure it all out. A conveyer system on an overhead monorail with five hoists helps shift cargo pallets around the various bays. In addition, Wasp is equipped with fourteen electric two-ton forklifts, twenty-five three-ton diesel forklifts, two five-ton rough terrain forklifts, two pallet conveyers, five aircraft tow tractors, and four spotting dollies. There are also six six-ton cargo elevators to move things from the well deck and vehicle/cargo areas to the hangar and flight decks.
Walking up the vehicle ramp to the hangar deck, you emerge into a vast space which takes up almost a third of the Wasp's length. Two full deck levels high, the hangar deck is the aircraft maintenance and stowage area. A typical air group includes a dozen or so CH-46 Sea Knights, four big CH-53E Sea Stallions, four AH-1W Cobras, and four UH-1N Iroquois. A half-dozen AV-8B Harrier II fighter/bombers are usually stowed up on the flight deck or "roof" as the crew members call it. This is because Harriers are designed to be weatherproof. While it is theoretically possible for Wasp to operate up to forty-five CH-46E-sized aircraft, you usually find some of them up on deck, leaving some room to work down in the hangar. The deck and hangar are linked by two deck edge elevators, each capable of lifting up to 75,000 lb/34,090 kg. This is a change from the LHA, which had one elevator on the fantail. In addition to maintenance and stowage, the hangar deck is used by the embarked Marines for fitness and proficiency training (rappelling and other skills). It serves as a staging area for mission teams as they prepare for action. In the rafters are small office and control spaces for the air and maintenance departments, with windows for monitoring the activities below. Walking forward along the starboard side, you come to the flight deck ramp tunnel. This allows vehicles to drive up to the flight deck through the island structure without having to use the aircraft elevators. This usually is the way that the Marines march up to the flight deck to board helicopters. When the LHD was designed back in the early 1980s, the standard utility vehicle for the Marines was the old M151 Jeep. During the construction of the early LHDs in the 1980s, the Marines replaced their jeeps with HMMWVs, which turned out to be wider than the designers expected. Unfortunately, the dimensions of this access tunnel were already frozen, so HMMWVs must ride the elevators. It is a minor inconvenience; starting with LHD-2 they widened the tunnel. But the story underlines how long it takes to design and build new warships. Even though Wasp was based on the existing LHA design, it still took most of eight years to bring her into the fleet.
Top deck view of the USS Wasp (LHD-1). JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER
As you exit the island onto the flight deck, there is the feeling of leaving a huge cave and breaking into daylight and fresh air. Covered with a non-skid coating and dotted with aircraft tie-down points, the flight deck is the LHD's primary reason for existence. At 844 ft/257.25 m long and 107 ft/32.6 m wide, it defines the ship's largest dimensions. It is also the most dangerous place on the ship. You have probably seen film footage of flight operations on a big-decked
supercarrier. It is a hot, noisy, hazardous place to work, filled with things that can kill you. Jets and helicopters loaded with fuel, weapons, and men race around the deck like crazed banshees. Well, the deck of the Wasp is all of that and much more. For one thing, it is smaller (about one third the size), and most of the weapons aboard the aircraft are armed Marines, loaded with gear that can get loose and be sucked into a turbine engine. Though they make for some difficulties, those Marines are the reason why Wasp and her sisters were built.
A CH-46E and CH-53E of HMM-264 sit folded on the port elevator of the USS Wasp (LHD-1) in the summer of 1995. The ship is equipped with two such elevators.
JOHN D. GRESHAM
The massive island structure of the USS Wasp (LHD-1). Located on the starboard side of the main deck, it is packed with weapons, electronics, and other equipment vital to the operations of the ship.
JOHN D. GRESHAM
The deck of the Wasp has nine takeoff and landing spots for helicopters. Each spot is numbered, running from starboard to port, front to rear. Thus, the starboard spot farthest forward is Spot 1, while the port spot farthest aft is Spot 9. Usually, Spots 1, 3, and 8 (along the starboard side) are parking areas for AH-1W Cobra and UH-1N Iroquois helicopters forward, and AV-8B Harrier IIs aft. This arrangement maximizes the use of the limited space in the hangar, and still leaves a large area for launch and recovery of aircraft up on the roof. As on the big supercarriers, the deck crews wear colored jerseys to designate their tasks. Red for fuel and ordnance, yellow for spotters, etc. These people operate in a world where noise is an enemy, and virtually all signals are by hand. They move and service $50-million aircraft with little more than gestures and nods for communication. When you consider that these sailors are about twenty years old (are you happy when a kid that age parks your car?), you can appreciate their burden of responsibility. Accidents do happen, and safety nets ring the perimeter of the flight deck. If a deck-hand should fall or be blown overboard (by wind or jet exhaust), he (hopefully) falls into a net before dropping sixty ft/twenty m or more to the sea. Around the perimeter are points for refueling, rearming, and servicing aircraft.
The deck level is the best place to observe Wasp's weapons. Though the LHAs were a model for the LHDs, the armament of the Wasp shows how far 1990s technology has gone beyond the 1960s and 1970s. The LHA's armament provided a rudimentary defense against aircraft and limited capability against surface and shore targets. The designers of the LHDs dispensed with inshore bombardment, focusing instead on air and missile threats. The LHD design deletes the 5-in./127mm guns and the manned 20mm mounts. Instead, modern eight-cell RIM-7 Sea Sparrow launchers are fitted. The Sea Sparrow is a surface-launched version of the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile (AAM). Unlike the aerial version, Sea Sparrow has racked up an impressive record of reliability in three decades as a short range SAM ("point defense" the Navy calls it). The current version, the RIM-7M, has a range of around 10 nm/18.5 km, providing an inner layer of defense against incoming anti-ship missiles and aircraft. Like the airborne version of Sparrow, the RIM-7 utilizes semi-active radar guidance, which means that a radar on the ship "paints" the target, and the missile homes on the reflected microwave energy. The 450-lb/204-kg missile has a lethal 90-lb/40.8-kg warhead. Sea Sparrow is found on everything from aircraft carriers to frigates and supply ships, and has been widely exported to NATO and "friendly" countries. Wasp carries two eight-cell launchers (each with eight reloads) and a pair of Mk 91 illumination radars. One launcher sits at the front of the island structure, and the other is mounted on a sponson on the fantail.
In addition to the Sea Sparrow launchers, three Mk 16 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) are installed to deal with any missiles that "leak" through the area SAM defense of escorting destroyers and cruisers, or the point-defense systems. One unit is located at the front of the island structure, and the other two are mounted on either side of the Sea Sparrow launcher on the fantail sponson. Each CIWS is built around a 20mm General Electric Gatling gun like the M61 on the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. CIWS fires 3,000 rounds per minute in 200-round bursts, with tungsten penetrators designed to break up an incoming missile, or detonate its warhead. Each CIWS has a 1,550-round magazine, and carries its own search and track radars. It is a self-contained unit; once turned on, it automatically attacks any fast-moving target it identifies as hostile. It can hit targets up to 6,000 yards/5,488 meters away, but is most effective within about 1,625 yards/1,486 meters. When conducting flight operations, Wasp tends to keep her three CIWS turned off, in case they accidentally identify a "friendly" aircraft as "hostile." Electronic Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems still are not terribly reliable, and both sailors and aircrews take such things quite seriously. Several years ago, a RIM-7, fired accidentally by an American aircraft carrier, hit a Turkish destroyer on maneuvers, killing her captain and several crewmen.
While CIWS can defeat small anti-ship missiles like the French MM-38/ AM-39/MM-40 Exocet or the American A/RGM-84 Harpoon, it has trouble with large, fast sea-skimmers like the Russian SS-N-22 Sunburn with its 1,100-lb/500 kg warhead and Mach 2 speed (the subsonic Harpoon and Exocet have 250-to-500- 1b/125-to-225-kg warheads). Even if CIWS detonates the incoming missile's warhead, it is moving so fast that missile fragments will "pepper" the ship. This is one reason why the structure of Wasp and all new U.S. Navy ships have been hardened with lightweight Kevlar armor panels. A new system called the RIM-116A Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) will augment CIWS. This little missile combines the AIM-9 Sidewinder airframe with the FIM-92 Stinger seeker head. It can intercept targets out to 5 nm/9 km, far enough to avoid "fragging" the ship with high-velocity wreckage. RAM is fired by a twenty-four-round Ex-31 lightweight launcher. Wasp will get two Ex-31 RAM launchers when she comes in for her first major overhaul; new units will get them starting with Bataan (I HD-5). Eight M2 .50-cal. machine-gun mounts provide defense against small boats and frogmen. New units (and ships completing their first overhaul) will replace four machine guns with three 25mm Bushmaster cannon. An SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo-decoy system is mounted in the LHD's stern. Towed behind the ship, these acoustic/magnetic decoys (hopefully) decoy any incoming torpedo. Active "anti-torpedo torpedo" systems for installation on major warships may be ready in a few years.
The most noticeable difference between the LHAs and the LHDs is the smaller "island" structure on the newer vessels. The LHA island held all the control spaces for fighting and running the ship plus all of the planning and command spaces for the embarked Marines. This kept everything centrally located, but was very vulnerable to a single missile or bomb hit. Anti-ship-missile seeker heads usually "lock" onto the largest or hottest structures of a ship (the island with its boiler uptakes is perfect). Thus, on the LHD design, the massive island structure was cut down by two full decks and the Marine command spaces relocated below, deep within the ship. In addition to the weapons mounted on the island, most of the ship's sensors and communications antennas are mounted as high as possible. These include:* SPS-48E-A 3-D search radar which provides air control and AAW battle management functions for the Wasp. This high-resolution radar has a reported range out to around 60 nm/110 km.
* SPS-49 (V)5--The best naval 2-D air-search radar of our time. Very reliable with a detection range of up to several hundred miles/kilometers, it is found on most major combatants in the U.S. Navy, as well as many foreign vessels.
* SPS-64 (V)9--This is primary a navigation radar for keeping formation and operating close to shore. It is a development of the classic LN-66 navigation radar in use for several decades.
* SPS-67--The SPS-67 is a general-purpose surface-search radar, designed to provide precise targeting data against surface targets.
* Mk 23 Target Acquisition System (TAS)--This is a small, fast-rotating radar for detecting sea-skimming or high-angle missile attacks. It feeds data into the SYS-2 (V)3 weapons-control system, which can automatically activate the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow or RIM-116 RAM systems.
; * SLQ-32 (V)3--The SLQ-32 is a family of electronic-warfare systems which can be tailored to the protection requirements of a particular ship. The (V)3 version has a wide-band radar-warning receiver, a wide band radar jammer, and a bank of four Mk 137 Super Rapid Blooming Chaff (SRBOC) launchers. These six-barreled mortars throw up a cloud of chaff (metal-coated mylar strips) and infrared decoys to (hopefully) blind or confuse an incoming missile at the last minute.
These systems give Wasp's commanding officer and battle staff great situational awareness of the battle space surrounding their ship and the ARG. Given the variety of threats that face an LHD, you can see why the Navy needs to defend this billion-dollar-plus asset.