Tarawa - class amphibious assault ship The " Tarawa " class is a ship class of amphibious assault ship s / LHA operated by the United States Navy ( USN ) . Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between 1971 and 1980 ; another four ships were planned , but later canceled . As of 2011 , only one vessel is active , and the class is due to be replaced by the " America " class amphibious assault ships from 2013 onwards . Design . The vessels have a full load displacement of . Each ship is long , with a beam of , and a draft of . Propulsion is provided by two Combustion Engineering boilers , connected to two Westinghouse turbines . These supply to the ship ' s two propeller shafts . A " Tarawa " class vessel can reach a maximum speed of , and has a maximum range of at . In addition to the main propulsion system , the ships are fitted with a bow thruster . As of 1998 , the ships ' armament consists of a Mark 49 RAM surface - to - air missile system , two Vulcan Phalanx close - in weapons systems , six Mark 242 25 mm automatic cannons , and eight 12 . 7 mm machine guns . Previously , the amphibious warships were fitted with a Mark 25 Sea Sparrow missile system ( which was replaced by the Phalanx units ) , and two 5 - inch ( 127 mm ) Mk 45 lightweight guns in bow sponsons ( the guns were removed across the class during 1997 and 1998 ) . Countermeasures and decoys include four Mark 36 SRBOC launchers , a SLQ - 25 Nixie towed torpedo decoy , a Sea Gnat unit , SLQ - 49 chaff decoys . The number of helicopters carried by each vessel was up to 19 Sikorsky CH - 53 Sea Stallion s , 26 Boeing Vertol CH - 46 Sea Knight , or a mix of the two . The flight deck is fitted with two aircraft lifts , and up to 9 Sea Stallions or 12 Sea Knights can be operated simultaneously . With a small amount of modification , the ships could carry and operate up to six McDonnell Douglas AV - 8B Harrier II jump - jets . The " Tarawa " class ships are designed to embark a reinforced battalion of the United States Marine Corps and their equipment . Onboard accommodation is provided for up to 1 , 703 marines , while is provided for the battalion ' s vehicles , and is allocated for stores and other equipment . As well as deploying by helicopters , personnel and equipment can be embarked or offloaded via a well deck in each ship ' s stern . Up to four LCU 1610 landing craft can be transported in and operated from the well deck , along with other designs and combinations of landing craft ( two LCU and two LCM - 8 , or 17 LCM - 6 , or 45 LVT ) . The " Tarawa " design was later repeated for the " Wasp " class amphibious assault ships , with some changes . The main changes to the latter eight - ship class include the lower placement of the ship ' s bridge aboard the " Wasp " s , the relocation of the command and control facilities to inside the hull , modifications to allow the operation of Harrier jump - jets and Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft , and removal of the 5 - inch guns and their sponsons to increase the overall size of the flight deck . Construction . All five warship s were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding , at this company ' s shipyard in Pascagoula , Mississippi . The " Tarawa " was approved for construction during Fiscal Year 1969 , with two more ships of this class ordered by Congress in the 1970 and 1971 fiscal years . Nine ships of this class were originally contemplated for the " Tarawa " class , but just five were ordered and built , and the other four ships were never ordered by the Navy . Work on the first warship of this class , the , began on 15 November 1971 , and she was commissioned into the Navy on 29 May 1976 . The last of the five ships , the , was completed on 3 May 1980 . Decommissioning and replacement . The " Tarawa " s began leaving service in 2005 . By 2011 , four of the five amphibious assault ships had been decommissioned , leaving only " Peleliu " in active service . The " Tarawa " class is to be replaced by the " America " class amphibious assault ship . The first " America " class vessel is scheduled to be delivered in 2013 . Originally , four were planned ( with the " Wasp " class built as a direct replacement for " Belleau Wood " ) , but the number has since been reduced .