The US Navy’s eleventh San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock Portland (LPD 27) has successfully completed acceptance sea trials, shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries announced.
Built at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division, Portland spent last week with the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), performing more than 200 trial events that included both in-port and underway portions.
Key demonstrations performed during acceptance trials for INSURV by the Ingalls’ test and trials team included: the anchor-handling demonstration, ballast/de-ballast demonstration, detect-to-engage exercise, running the ship at full power and steering. Now Ingalls’ shipbuilders will put their final touches on the ship in preparation for delivery this year.
“Our team puts in a lot of hard work and effort to make these sea trials successful,” said George Jones, Ingalls’ vice president of operations. “We get better with every LPD we build, and we look forward to delivering a very complex and capable ship to our sailors and Marines. As always, this success was a joint effort between our shipbuilders, test and trials team and our partners at Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Gulf Coast.”
Portland (LPD 27) is named for the largest city in the state of Oregon. The state has a long history with the Navy, going back to the construction of hundreds of World War II Liberty and Victory ships at three Portland-area shipyards.
Ingalls has delivered 11 San Antonio-class ships to the Navy, including John P. Murtha (LPD 26) in 2016. In June, Ingalls received an advance procurement contract from the U.S. Navy to provide long-lead-time material and advance construction activities for LPD 29, the 13th amphibious transport dock of the San Antonio class.
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.