page_title: USS Wasp (LHD-1)
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: USS Wasp (LHD-1) / Ship history / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: 050621-N-8053S-154 Atlantic Ocean - Landing Craft Unit One Six Five Eight (LCU 1658) assigned to Amphibious Craft Unit Two (ACU-2) is held in position by mooring lines inside the well deck of amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1). Wasp was recently outfitted with an experimental lighting configuration and is currently testing its effectiveness during her well deck certification.
context_page_description: USS Wasp (LHD-1) is a United States Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship, and the lead ship of her class. She is the tenth USN vessel to bear the name since 1775, with the last two ships named Wasp being aircraft carriers. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Wasp and her sister ships are the first specifically designed to accommodate new Landing Craft Air Cushion for fast troop movement over the beach, and Harrier II Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing jets which provide close air support for the assault force. She can also accommodate the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, the tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey, the F-35B Lightning II multi-role fighter, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.
context_section_description: With the exception of deployments noted below, from 2004 to 2012, Wasp was not deployed as often or as long as other LHDs, as she was assigned to Joint Strike Fighter F-35B Lightning II testing and kept close to the U.S. as much as possible.
  Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom
  In February 2004, Wasp set sail to take the Marines of 1/6 Marine Regiment and HMM-266 Rein to Afghanistan. They arrived at the end of March to offload the Marines, then returned to the U.S. to pick up more Marines from HMH-461 and transported them to Djibouti. After offloading HMH-461 in Djibouti, they picked up the Marines of HMM-266 Rein from Kuwait in August 2004, and returned to Norfolk, Virginia mid-September 2004. On 7 July 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Wasp. He gave a speech honoring the efforts of the USS Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  Wasp was the first ship to deploy the V-22 Osprey, doing so in October 2007, by carrying VMM-263's ten MV-22B Ospreys to Iraq to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Wasp also served as the platform for the program's first Sea Trials in December 1990, involving the third and fourth Osprey prototypes. Wasp was the principal attraction at Fleet Week 2007 in New York City.
  On 4 October 2009, Wasp deployed from her base at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia on a three-month voyage down the Atlantic coast to the Caribbean, with Destroyer Squadron 40 and an embarked Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The 1,100 sailors and 365 embarked Marines conducted operations and exercises in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of responsibility. The operation, called Southern Partnership Station, is part of a maritime strategy, which focuses on building interoperability and cooperation in the region while meeting common challenges. In mid-October 2009, Wasp set anchor at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and disembarked Marines who were assigned to training status for approximately three months while Wasp went underway.
caption: A Boatswain's Mate directs a Landing Craft Utility during wet well operations on board USS Wasp
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