HII completes builder's trials for San Antonio-class Fort Lauderdale.

According to a press release published by Huntington Ingalls Industries on November 3, 2021, its Ingalls Shipbuilding division recently completed the first round of sea trials for San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28).
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San Antonio class amphibious transport dock Fort Lauderdale (Picture source: Huntington Ingalls)

LPD 28 is named Fort Lauderdale to honor the Florida city’s historic ties to the U.S. Navy, which date back to the 1830s and include an important naval training center during World War II.

Ingalls has delivered 11 San Antonio-class ships to the Navy and has three more under construction including Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28), Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29), and Harrisburg (LPD 30). Ingalls was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for the construction of LPD 31 in 2020.

The San Antonio class is the latest addition to the Navy’s 21st-century amphibious assault force. The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships are used to embark and land Marines, their equipment and supplies ashore via air cushion or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey.

The ships support a Marine Air-Ground Task Force across the spectrum of operations, conducting amphibious and expeditionary missions of sea control and power projection to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions throughout the first half of the 21st century.

The San Antonio class is powered by four sequentially turbocharged marine Colt-Pielstick diesel engines driving two shafts. She can reach a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h). She has a crew of 28 officers and 333 enlisted sailors.

The San Antonio class is fitted with the self-defense system (SSDS) mk2 developed by Raytheon for the US Navy. SSDS is an integration of all the ship’s self-defense systems and includes multifunction radar, an advanced integrated electronic warfare system, and an infrared search-and-track (IRST) system.

The ship is armed with two Bushmaster II 30 mm close-in-guns, two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, two Mk 41 eight-cell VLS for quad-packed ESSMs, and several twin M2 Browning machines gun turrets.