Huntingdon Ingalls Industries (HII) “christened” the latest San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock that will become part of the US Navy (USN) fleet on January 11, 2024. The USS Harrisburg (otherwise known as the LPD 30) is the 14thSan Antonia-class vessel built by HII, and the first of the class's Flight II.
The Harrisburg was launched in October 2024, but the ceremony to officially give it is name took it closer to its active service. It will be the first vessel in the Flight II iteration of the class.
Eventually, there are plans for Flight II to contain 13 vessels, mirroring Flight I, which was also built by HII.
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San Antonio-class vessels have been designed and built to be extremely multi-mission capable, taking on a wide range of assignments including amphibious assault, special operations and expeditionary warfare missions.
They are also intended to be operationally flexible, so they can be deployed independently or as part of a larger strike group.
At its launch, the initial deployment of the Harrisburg was said to be in support of expeditionary warfare, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.
To date, the San Antonio class has been notorious for the overspend in its delivery, which each of the 13 Flight I vessels costing US$1.6 billion, set against an original expectation of just an $890 million price tag.
The USS Harrisburg is expected to retain this overspend, but HII is understood to be aiming to reduce the unit cost of further Flight II vessels to $1.4 billion apiece.
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