Amphibious assault ship
.jpg)
An amphibious assault ship (English Amphibious Assault Ship ) is the largest ship in the nomenclature of the United States Navy that is specially designed for amphibious warfare . The term amphibious assault ship is a misleading translation from English, since the ship itself is not amphibious - i.e. can be used on land and water - but is only a carrier for amphibious vehicles . The analogous translation would therefore be ship for amphibious attacks .
The first dedicated amphibious assault ships were the Iwo Jima class units in the 1960s ; 15 years later the Tarawa class followed . The first Wasp-class units entered service in the late 1980s . A successor to the Tarawa class is currently being built with the America class. The Royal Navy also operates an amphibious assault ship with the HMS Ocean (L12) . The Spanish Navy also built one of the Juan Carlos I . The French Navy owns a total of three Mistral-class ships .
From the outside, the ships resemble small aircraft carriers ; in fact, they are larger than, say, the British Invincible class . However, mostly helicopters and other vertical take-off take off from the flight deck of an amphibious assault ship , which is why the term “ helicopter carrier ” has established itself. The US Navy uses several identifiers, namely Landing Platform, Helicopter (LPH, Iwo Jima class ), Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA, Tarawa class and America class ) and Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD, Wasp class ). Other navies have partly adopted these identifiers.
The biggest difference to conventional aircraft carriers is a so-called well deck , in which several landing craft are housed. For example, amphibious assault ships can carry out a landing operation both on water and in the air. The helicopters and VTOL aircraft can also fly close air support . In the identifier used by the US Navy, the D stands for the presence of such a well deck. As LPH classified Iwo Jima class did not yet have it, any more than the two ships of the contract section Flight 0 of America class . The Tarawa class classified as LHA , on the other hand, had a well deck, and the future America class Flight 1 units are also to receive one.
Amphibious assault ships usually work with dock landing ships and are protected by warships similar to an aircraft carrier combat group . These associations are called Expeditionary Strike Group in the US Navy .