Huntington Ingalls christens Fort Lauderdale LPD 28 amphibious transport dock for US Navy.

According to information released by Huntington Ingalls on August 21, 2021, American shipyard Huntington Ingalls Industries has announced that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division christened amphibious transport dock for U.S. Navy Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28).
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Amphibious transport dock Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) for U.S. Navy was christened on August 21, 2021. (Picture source Twitter account City of Fort Lauderdale)

The USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) is the twelfth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship that entered into service with the United States Navy. The contract to build Fort Lauderdale was awarded to Huntington Ingalls Industries' Ingalls Shipyard on 19 December 2016. Fort Lauderdale's keel was laid down on 13 October 2017, at Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 28 March 2020.

The San Antonio is a class of amphibious transport docks, also called a "landing platform, dock" (LPD). The ship was designed to provide the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps with modern, sea-based platforms that are networked, survivable, and built to operate modern military aircraft or helicopters as the MV-22 Osprey, amphibious armored vehicles, air-cushioned landing craft (LCACs), and future means by which marines are delivered ashore.  The ship can carry two LCACs, 700 troops, and 14 amphibious armored vehicles. Each LCAC can carry 60 tons of cargo and vehicles, including the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank. 

The San Antonio-class has a length of 208 m, a beam of 32 m, a draft of 7 m, and a fully loaded displacement of 25,300 tons. The ship has three vehicle decks of 25,402ft² and two cargo holds, with 25,548ft³ for bulk cargo and ammunition magazines in addition to the 1,234m³ for cargo fuel. The landing deck is able to accommodate two Sikorsky CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters, six Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, four Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two Boeing Bell MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

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 machine gun turrets.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII’s Technical Solutions division provides mission-critical national security solutions to government and commercial customers worldwide.