page_title: America-class amphibious assault ship
hierarchical_section_title: America-class amphibious assault ship
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6) returns to Huntington Ingalls Shipyard, Pascagoula, Mississippi (USA), after completing sea trials. During the trials, the ship's main propulsion, communications, steering, navigational and radar systems were tested for the first time at sea. America will be the first ship of its class, replacing the Tarawa-class of amphibious assault ships.
context_page_description: The America class is a ship class of landing helicopter assault type amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy. The class is designed to put ashore a Marine Expeditionary Unit using helicopters and MV-22B Osprey V/STOL transport aircraft, supported by AV-8B Harrier II or F-35 Lightning II V/STOL aircraft and various attack helicopters. The first of these warships was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 2014 to replace USS Peleliu of the Tarawa class; as many as eleven will be built. The design of the America class is based on that of USS Makin Island, the last ship of the Wasp class, but the "Flight 0" ships of the America class will not have well decks, and they have smaller on-board hospitals in order to give more space for aviation uses.
  Although they only carry helicopters and V/STOL aircraft, USS America, with a displacement of about 45,000 long tons, is similar in size to the French Charles de Gaulle and the Indian Vikramaditya fixed-wing aircraft carriers. Also, while more than 124 feet shorter, they are of comparable displacement to the former US Navy Midway-class aircraft carriers.
context_section_description: The America class (formerly the LHA(R) class) is a ship class of landing helicopter assault (LHA) type amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy (USN). The class is designed to put ashore a Marine Expeditionary Unit using helicopters and MV-22B Osprey V/STOL transport aircraft, supported by AV-8B Harrier II or F-35 Lightning II V/STOL aircraft and various attack helicopters. The first of these warships was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 2014 to replace USS Peleliu of the Tarawa class; as many as eleven will be built. The design of the America class is based on that of USS Makin Island, the last ship of the Wasp class, but the "Flight 0" ships of the America class will not have well decks, and they have smaller on-board hospitals in order to give more space for aviation uses.
  Although they only carry helicopters and V/STOL aircraft, USS America, with a displacement of about 45,000 long tons (46,000 t), is similar in size to the French Charles de Gaulle and the Indian Vikramaditya fixed-wing aircraft carriers. Also, while more than 124 feet (38 m) shorter, they are of comparable displacement to the former US Navy Midway-class aircraft carriers.
  USS America can be used as a small aircraft carrier with a squadron of jet fighters plus several multipurpose helicopters, such as the MH-60 Seahawk. It can carry about 20 to 25 AV-8B, F-35Bs, or a mixture of the two, but the future ships of this class, starting with USS Bougainville (LHA-8), will have smaller aircraft hangars to leave room for larger amphibious warfare well decks.
caption: USS America (LHA-6) during trials in 2013
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4256", "Image ImageLength": "2832", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "131109-N-ZZ999-330 PASCAGOULA, Miss. (Nov. 9, 2013) - Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) America (LHA 6) returns to Huntington Ingalls Shipyard Nov. 9 after completing Builder's Sea Trials. During the trials, the ship's main propulsion, communications, steering, navigational and radar systems were tested for the first time at sea. America will be the first ship of its class, replacing the Tarawa class of amphibious assault ships.  As the next generation \"big-deck\" amphibious ship, America will be optimized\u2028 for aviation, capable of supporting current and future aircraft such as the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey and Joint Strike Fighter. The ship will provide flexible, multi-mission capabilities spanning from forward deployed crisis\u2028 response to maritime security operations. The ship was christened on Oct. 20, 2012 and is currently undergoing construction in Pascagoula, Miss.  (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Lawrence Grove/Released)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:11:09 18:06:07", "Image ExifOffset": "1264", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1998", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6501", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:11:09 11:43:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:11:09 11:43:51", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "24/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "210", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "49", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4256", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2832", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "210", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2023246", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[80, 400, 9/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "80.0-400.0 mm f/4.5-5.6"}