USS San Antonio (LPD-17)

USS San Antonio (LPD-17) deploy
Career
Name:	USS San Antonio
Namesake:	The city of San Antonio, Texas
Awarded:	17 December 1996
Builder:	Northrop Grumman Ship Systems
Laid down:	9 December 2000
Launched:	12 July 2003
Commissioned:	14 January 2006
Homeport:	Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
Motto:	"Never Retreat, Never Surrender"
Status:	Ship in service as of 2009
Badge:	150px
General characteristics
Class and type:	San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock
Displacement:	25,000 tons full
Length:	208.5 m (684 ft) overall, 201.4 m (661 ft) waterline
Beam:	31.9 m (105 ft) extreme, 29.5 m (97 ft) waterline
Draft:	7 m (23 ft)
Propulsion:	Four Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, two shafts, 40,000 hp (30 MW)
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h)
Boats and landing craft carried:	Two LCACs (air cushion); OR One LCU (conventional); plus Fourteen Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles (EFV)
Capacity:	699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge to 800 total.
Complement:	363 (28 officers, 335 enlisted)
Armament:	Two 30 mm Bushmaster II cannons, for surface threat defense Two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for air defense
Aircraft carried:	Four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters OR two MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft may be launched or recovered simultaneously.

USS San Antonio (LPD-17), the lead ship of her class of amphibious transport dock, is the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of San Antonio, Texas. The ship is designed to deliver up to 800 Marines ashore by landing craft and helicopters.

Construction and commissioning

The construction contract was awarded on 17 December 1996 to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana and the keel was laid down on 9 December 2000. The ship was launched on 12 July 2003 and christened on 19 July by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. She was originally scheduled to be commissioned 17 July 2002, but was delayed by poor performance at the Avondale shipyard, which resulted in her being towed from New Orleans to the Northrop Grumman shipyard at Pascagoula, Mississippi, in December 2004 for completion. The ship was unable to move under her own power at that time, despite have been christened more than a year earlier.

File:Uss san antonio 1330453.jpg

USS San Antonio arrives at Port Everglades, Fla., 1 May 2006.

The crew took delivery and moved aboard three days before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. Work was delayed further when the ship became a base for regional relief efforts, including accommodations for some shipyard workers, the National Guard, Navy diving and salvage personnel and government officials. The ship's final cost was $840 million over budget.

The ship arrived in her homeport of Norfolk, Va., on 18 December 2005. The ship was finally commissioned 14 January 2006, at NS Ingleside Texas under the command of Captain Jonathan M. Padfield. Guest speakers included former U.S. President George H. W. Bush. Senator Hutchison, the ship's sponsor, gave the crew the customary first command, "Man our ship, and bring her to life!"

Improvements

San Antonio is the first U.S. Navy vessel to incorporate new crew comfort features, including bunks with increased headroom, in-rack fans, and pull-out laptop computer shelves. She is also the largest U.S. Navy vessel to incorporate stealth features, with close attention paid to exterior shaping.

• Major antennas are mounted on platforms inside two Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor systems rather than on traditional mast yardarms.
• Deck edges are bounded by shaped bulwarks rather than lifeline stanchions. These bulwarks are hollow and double as storage lockers, eliminating locker clutter on decks.
• Exterior equipment is recessed or flush-mounted where possible, giving the ship a clean exterior appearance. Any equipment that cannot be flush-mounted (such as ladders) incorporate shaping features of their own.
• The boat-handling crane at the center of the ship folds into a clean shape when not in use.
• The anchor and anchor pocket are shaped to minimize radar backscatter.

First deployment

File:Combined Task Force 151 - 090112-N-7918H-499.jpg

USS San Antonio, CTF-151 flagship

Mission

USS San Antonio was designated as the flagship of Combined Task Force 151, the multi-national anti-piracy naval force off Somalia. The ship would serve as an afloat forward staging base (AFSB) for the following force elements:

• 14-member U.S. Navy visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team.
• 8-member U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 405.
• Scout Sniper Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26 MEU) cross-decked from the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7).
• 3rd platoon of the 26 MEU 'Golf' Infantry Company, a military police detachment, and intelligence personnel.
• Fleet Surgical Team 8 with level-two surgical capability to deal with trauma, surgical, critical care and medical evacuation needs.
• Approximately 75 Marines with six AH-1W Super Cobra and two UH-1N Huey helicopters from the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 264 (HMM-264) of the 26th MEU cross-decked from the USS Iwo Jima.
• Three HH-60H helicopters from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 3 (HS-3) cross-decked from USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).

During its time off Africa, the crew boarded 20 foreign vessels. The crew discovered hidden explosives on one of the vessels. The ship returned to Norfolk on 27 March 2009.

Problems and incidents

File:USS San Antonio AAV02.jpg

Amphibious Assault Vehicles in San Antonio's well deck in March 2008

Nearly three years after commissioning, problems persist with this first-in-class vessel. On 27 January 2006, a contract worth over $6,000,000 was awarded to Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., for the Post-Shakedown Availability of USS San Antonio. Work was expected to be completed by April 2007. On 22 June 2007, Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter sent a letter to Northrop Grumman outlining problems with the ship, from leaks to steerage issues, stating, "Twenty-three months after commissioning of LPD 17, the Navy still does not have a mission-capable ship.

On 27 August 2008, San Antonio was unable to deploy as scheduled with the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), due to a mechanical failure in the stern gate of her well deck, which would prevent proper loading and deployment of landing craft. The problem was fixed and San Antonio deployed two days late, on 29 August 2008.

Two months into her maiden deployment, San Antonio had been forced to undergo an unplanned maintenance stop in Bahrain due to leaks in its lube oil piping system.

During Lube-oil piping inspections in the summer of 2009 it was found that over 1000 feet of piping had to be replaced. In late November the ships 4-diesel engines were out of commission and needed to be re-inspected. After the inspection they found metal shavings in the engines main reduction gears from when the shipyard workers at Norfolk Naval Shipyard improperly welded the piping on. The Ship is currently docked at Earl Industries Shipyard re-building all 4 main engines.^{[citation needed]}

References

This article contains information from the Naval Vessel Registry and various other U.S. Navy Web sites.

External links

• USS San Antonio official website
• navsource.org: USS San Antonio
• National Defense Magazine article
• USN Commissioning press release
• Navy Times article on Post-commissioning Defects