The U.S. Navy yesterday said that the future amphibious landing ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) is scheduled to be homeported at Naval Base San Diego following its commissioning in summer 2016.
John P. Murtha is a San Antonio-class amphibious landing ship being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Stationing amphibious landing ships in a West Coast port supports the rebalance to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, placing its most advanced capabilities and greater capacity in that theater. By 2020, approximately 60 percent of Navy ships and aircraft will be based in the region.
The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships, all built at Ingalls Shipbuilding, are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing craft and Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft (MV 22). These ships support amphibious assault, special operations or expeditionary warfare missions and can serve as secondary aviation platforms for amphibious ready groups.
On February 17-18, USS Anchorage (LPD 23), another San Antonio-class amphibious landing ship will host open ship visits at Broadway Pier in San Diego.
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