The US Navy has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division a $1.43 billion contract to design and build the 13th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock LPD 29.
Preliminary work has begun on LPD 29, and the start of fabrication will take place later this year, HII said.
Work on the design and construction is expected to be completed by July 2023.
Ingalls has built and delivered 11 San Antonio-class ships. The 11th, Portland (LPD 27), will be commissioned on April 21 in Portland, Oregon. The 12th, Fort Lauderdale, is under construction and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2020.
“This contract is further recognition of the confidence the Navy/Marine Corps team has in the great work our shipbuilders are doing in the LPD program,” said Ingalls Shipbuilding president Brian Cuccias. “We are excited to build this additional ship and in providing our sailors and Marines with the best amphibious ships in the world.”
The San Antonio class is a major part of 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.