U.S. Navy Fact Sheet

Amphibious Transport Dock - LPD

Description
Amphibious transport dock ships are warships that embark, transport, and land elements of a landing force for a variety of expeditionary warfare missions.

Features
LPDs are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing craft and Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles (EFV) or Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) augmented by helicopters or vertical take off and landing aircraft (MV 22). These ships support amphibious assault, special operations or expeditionary warfare missions and can serve as secondary aviation platforms for amphibious ready groups.

Background
The versatile Austin-class LPDs provide substantial amphibious lift for Marines and their vehicles and cargo. As the San Antonio-class LPDs have entered service in recent years, Austin-class LPDs have been decommissioned. Collectively, these ships functionally replace over 41 ships (LPD 4, LSD 36, LKA 113, and LST 1179 classes of amphibious ships) providing the Navy and Marine Corps with modern, seabased platforms that are networked, survivable, and built to operate with 21st century transformational platforms, such as the MV-22 Osprey, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), and future means by which Marines are delivered ashore. A contract for final design and construction of San Antonio (LPD 17), the lead ship in the class, was awarded in December 1996; actual construction commenced in August 2000. USS San Antonio was delivered to the Navy in July 2005. LPDs 18-23 have also been delivered to the Navy. New York (LPD 21) is the first of three LPD 17-class ships built in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The ship’s bow stem was constructed using 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center. The Navy named the 8th and 9th ships of the class -- Arlington and Somerset -- in honor of the victims of the attacks on the Pentagon and United Flight 93, respectively. Materials from those sites were also incorporated into Arlington and Somerset. LPDs 25-27 are currently under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on the Gulf Coast, and will deliver over the next few years. The Navy awarded a long lead time material contract to HII for LPD 27 in 2010.