Wasp - class amphibious assault ship The " Wasp " class is a class of Landing Helicopter Dock ( LHD ) amphibious assault ship s operated by the United States Navy . Based on the " Tarawa " class , with modifications to operate more advanced aircraft and landing craft , the " Wasp " class is capable of transporting almost the full strength of a United States Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit ( MEU ) , and landing them in hostile territory via landing craft or helicopters . All " Wasp " - class ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding , at Pascagoula , Mississippi , with lead ship commissioned on 29 July 1989 . Eight " Wasp " - class ships were built , and , all eight are active . Design . The " Wasp " class is based on the preceding " Tarawa " - class design . The design was modified to allow for the operation of AV - 8B Harrier II aircraft and Landing Craft Air Cushion ( LCAC ) hovercraft , making the " Wasp " class the first ships specifically designed to operate these . The main physical changes between the two designs are the lower placement of the ship ' s bridge aboard the " Wasp " s , the relocation of the command and control facilities to inside the hull , the removal of the 5 - inch Mk 45 naval guns and their sponsons on the forward edge of the flight deck , and a lengthening of to carry the LCACs . Each " Wasp " class ship has a displacement of at full load , is long , has a beam of , and a draft of . For propulsion , most of the ships are fitted with two steam boilers connected to geared turbines , which deliver 70 , 000 shaft horsepower ( 33 , 849 kW ) to the two propeller shafts . This allows the LHDs to reach speeds of , with a range of at . The last ship of the class , , was instead fitted with two General Electric LM2500 geared gas turbines . The ship ' s company consists of 1 , 208 personnel . The ships are the largest amphibious warfare vessels in the world . Amphibious operations . The LHDs can support amphibious landings in two forms : by landing craft , or by helicopter . In the well deck , the LHDs can carry three Landing Craft Air Cushion , twelve Landing Craft Mechanised , or 40 Amphibious Assault Vehicle s ( AAVs ) , with another 21 AAVs in the vehicle deck . The flight deck has nine helicopter landing spots , and can operate helicopters as large as the Sikorsky CH - 53 Sea Stallion and Boeing Vertol CH - 46 Sea Knight . The size of the air group varies depending on the operation : a standard air group consists of six Harriers and four Bell AH - 1W SuperCobra s for attack and support , twelve Sea Knights and four Sea Stallions for transport , and three to four Bell UH - 1N Iroquois utility helicopters . For a full assault , the air group can be maxed out at 42 Sea Knights , while a " Wasp " operating in the sea control or ' harrier carrier ' configuration carries 20 Harriers ( though some ships of the class have operated as many as 24 ) , supported by six Sikorsky SH - 60 Seahawk helicopters for anti - submarine warfare . The CH - 46 is being replaced by the MV - 22 Osprey on a squadron - by - squadron basis , with expected full conversion within all aviation combat element s by 2019 . Two aircraft elevators move aircraft between the flight deck and the hangar ; in order to transit the Panama Canal , these elevators need to be folded in . Each ship is capable of hosting 1 , 894 personnel of the United States Marine Corps ; almost the full strength of a Marine Expeditionary Unit ( MEU ) . A " Wasp " - class vessel can transport up to of cargo , and another is allocated for the MEU ' s vehicles , which typically consists of 5 M1 Abrams battle tanks , up to 25 AAVs , eight M198 howitzer s , 68 trucks , and up to 12 other support vehicles . An internal monorail is used to shift cargo from the cargo holds to the well deck . Each " Wasp " - class ship has a hospital with 64 patient beds and six operating rooms . An additional 536 beds can be set up in an " Overflow Casualty Ward " as needed . Armament and sensors . The armament of the first four " Wasp " class consists of two Mark 29 octuple launchers for RIM - 7 Sea Sparrow missiles , two Mark 49 launchers for RIM - 116 Rolling Airframe Missile s , three 20 mm Phalanx CIWS systems , four 25 mm Mark 38 chain gun s , and four . 50 BMG machine guns . The next three ships , , , and , have a slightly reduced weapons outfit to their preceding sister ships , with one Phalanx and one Mark 38 gun removed . Countermeasures fitted to the ships include four to six Mark 36 SRBOC launchers , an AN / SLQ - 25 torpedo decoy , AN / SLQ - 49 chaff buoys , a Sea Gnat missile decoy , and an AN / SLQ - 32 Electronic Warfare Suite . The sensor suite fitted to each ship is made up of an AN / SPS - 48 or AN / SPS - 52 air - search radar backed up by an AN / SPS - 49 air - search radar , an SPS - 67 surface search radar , an AN / URN - 25 TACAN system , along with several other radars for navigation and fire control . Construction . All " Wasp " - class ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding , at Pascagoula , Mississippi . The first ship of the class , , was commissioned on 29 July 1989 . The fifth ship of the class , , was constructed through a process of modular assembly and pre - fitting out , which meant that the LHD was almost 75 % complete when launched . " Bataan " was also the first LHD built to house female personnel ( as opposed to modified after completion ) , with dedicated berths for up to 450 female Navy or Marine personnel .