November 07, 2006
Navy orders 8th LPD ship

By Christopher P. Cavas
Staff writer

The Navy ordered its eighth LPD 17-class amphibious transport dock ship and began buying materials for a ninth on Nov. 6, awarding a $1.45 billion contract to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.

The order is to build the future Arlington (LPD 24) at Northrop’s Avondale shipyard at New Orleans. Delivery of the ship is expected in 2011 or 2012. The Somerset (LPD 25) is scheduled for delivery about a year later. Northrop received the contract for the seventh ship, the future San Diego (LPD 24), in June.

The LPD 17 program was beset by numerous delays after its inception in the mid-1990s, and shipbuilding schedules at Northrop’s shipyards along the Gulf of Mexico were further disrupted by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. But the first ship, San Antonio, was commissioned in January and now is based at Norfolk, Va., and Northrop expects to deliver the second ship, New Orleans, by the end of the year.

The Navy plans to build nine ships of the class, replacing older LPDs that date from the 1960s and early 1970s. The ships displace about 26,000 tons fully loaded, and are 684 feet long.

LPD-type ships carry landing craft, vehicles and aircraft to support Marine Corps operations and are able to berth about 720 Marines.

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