Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit tcml-4

by Tom Clancy

  A ship-based cable television system broadcasts news and movies to every compartment. You see many small personal televisions (hooked to the ship's cable network), VCRs, and stereo systems used by crew and Marines for entertainment during the rare off-hours. A stabilized satellite television dish was recently fitted on the Wasp's island structure. Officially, this allows intelligence specialists to monitor CNN and other twenty-four-hour news services, but it also brings the crew news and sports from home without the delay of videocassettes. Soon, it will be standard equipment on all Navy vessels. Other amenities for the crew include a well-stocked ship's store, a post office, and an efficient laundry service. All of these features make life more livable for over 2,500 people during Wasp's six- or seven-month cruises.

  A ship is nothing but a cold hulk unless it can generate power. We'll finish our tour of the Wasp in the heart of the ship — engineering and propulsion. You have to go into the very bowels of the ship, below the vehicle and cargo decks, to enter the "land of the snipes," the nickname for boiler and engineering technicians. Rather than the gas turbines or marine diesels that drive most modern warships, LHDs continue the tradition of oil-fired steam plants. The Wasp is powered by a pair of 2,600-PSI/41.7-kg-per-cm Combustion Engineering boilers, which generate steam for the two Westinghouse turbines, for a total of 70,000 horsepower to the twin shafts. This translates to a cruising speed of around 22 kt/40.25 kph, and a maximum speed of approximately 24 kt/43.9 kph. While it may not quite match the 30+ kt/55 kph of a supercarrier or destroyer, it is adequate for the job. With a full load of fuel, steaming at approximately 20 kt/36.6 kph, the Wasp has an unrefueled range of approximately 9,500 nm/17,600 km, which means that it can transit to most potential trouble spots with a bare minimum of support shipping.

  The Wasp's vast electrical requirements are met by a series of motor generators supplying different types of power (220 V and 110 V AC, 12 V and 15 V DC, etc.). The freshwater distillation plant produces enough water for every member of the crew to take a "Hollywood" shower every day. Distilled water is quite soft and pure, without the chlorine taste prevalent in city tap water. The "snipes" of the Engineering Division also manage Wasp's fuel and fluid systems, including hydraulics, jet fuel, and diesel for the vehicles of the embarked Marines. They play a key role in damage control effort, since without power, Wasp would quickly succumb to damage from missiles, bombs, torpedoes, or even accidental fire. Warships are collections of combustible, flammable, and explosive stuff; all of these demand intense vigilance. Damage control is something of an obsession with Navy captains and crews. Our experience in the Persian Gulf and that of the British in the Falklands in 1982 emphasized the survival value of damage control. As noted in Submarine, the Navy has worked hard to deploy improved fire fighting systems like Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire extinguishers and improved emergency breathing apparatus. Everywhere on Wasp you see Day-Glo orange containers with emergency breathing masks for survival in the smoke of a fire.

  Not just a packing crate for Marines and their equipment, Wasp is a platform capable of many different missions, from amphibious raids and assaults, to sea control (escorting convoys and protecting sea lanes). It is perhaps for this reason that the Wasp (LHD-1) and her sister ships, Essex (LHD-2), Kearsarge (LHD-3), and Boxer (LHD-4), have become the most sought-after ships in the Navy. When the next three LHDs, Bataan (LHD-5), Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), and the still unnamed seventh unit of the class, join the fleet in a few years, it will give all twelve ARGs a big-deck aviation ship. The final three ships have significant improvements over the earlier LHDs. The Ex-31 RAM launchers and 25mm Bushmaster cannon mounts will be built in from the start, along with smaller superstructures, more aviation fuel capacity, and improved communications, damage control, and medical capabilities. There will also be accommodations for female personnel, under the "Women at Sea" program (see the LPD-17 below for more on this). These features will be retrofitted to earlier units during their first major overhauls. The Wasp and her sister ships represent the core of America's forced-entry capability, and will be so for decades to come.

  USS Whidby Island (LSD-41)

  At almost $1.25 billion dollars each, Wasp-class LHDs are hardly the most economical solution for every amphibious task. Sometimes, you need a ship that does just one or two things well. So the Landing Ship Dock (LSD) was created. The LSD is a transport and service platform for landing craft. At first, they were simple ships with well decks and minimal stowage or troop capacity. They could "flood down" to launch landing craft. Later, LSDs evolved into general-purpose vessels, with long-term accommodations for embarked troops and equipment, and limited helicopter capability. The design of the Anchorage (LSD-36) class, constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasized carrying large numbers of landing craft. These five ships served effectively in ARGs for almost three decades. But they are at the end of their service lives. The Whidbey Island (LSD-41) class will replace them.

  The USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41) leaves Cadiz, Spain, on February 16th, 1996, headed home from her 1995/96 Mediterranean cruise.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  The Whidbey Island class supplements the capabilities of the big-deck aviation ships of an ARG. In the event of a need to "split" an ARG, the LSD always accompanies the LHD, LHA, or LPD. This lets the ARG commander retain a forced-entry capability, due to the numerous landing craft the two ships carry. While the LSDs lack the command and control capabilities of the LHDs and LHAs, and the cargo capacity of the LPDs, they serve a vital role as amphibious delivery systems. Let's get to know Whidbey Island a bit better.

  In the early 1980s, planners at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) began to think about the mix of ships they wanted for the ARGs of the 1990s and beyond. Even before the decision to build Wasp-class LHDs, they knew that standoff from the enemy shore would dominate future amphibious ship design. While the old Anchorage-class LSDs could carry and operate the new air cushioned landing craft, it was clear that more LCACs would be needed in an ARG to replace the slower, more vulnerable LCUs. NAVSEA set about designing a new ship, known as the LSD-41, and selecting a contractor. The first three ships went to Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle, Washington. Whidbey Island was laid down on August 4th, 1981, launched on June 10th, 1983, and commissioned two years later on February 9th, 1985, with further units at one-year intervals. When Lockheed decided to leave the ship construction industry in the 1980s, the rest of the class was awarded to Avondale Industries of New Orleans, Louisiana. Avondale, an old Navy contractor, built the Knox-class (FF-1052) ASW frigates in the 1960s and 1970s. Set on the banks of the Mississippi, the yard uses more conventional technology than Litton Ingalls. Avondale's old-style slipways and serial assembly methods may suffer in head-to-head price comparisons with foreign competitors, but they do build quality ships.

  The Whidbey Island-class ships are relatively conventional, being evolutionary follow-ons to the LSD-36 class, with small but significant improvements. Only 609 ft/185.8 m long and 84 ft/25.6 m in beam, they are much smaller ships than the Wasp. Displacement is just 17,745 tons fully loaded. The have a shallow draft of 19.5 ft/6 m versus 26 2/3 ft/8.1 m for the LHDs. Whidbey Island is powered by medium-speed marine diesels, rather than steam turbines. The four SEMT-Pielstick engines deliver a combined total of 41,600 hp to twin shafts, for a top speed of 22 kt/40.25 kph. At an economical 20 kt/36.5 kph, they can cruise for 8,000 nm/ 14,816 km without refueling — an excellent match for the LHDs and LHAs. A relatively small crew of 334 officers and enlisted sailors reduces operating costs.

  Looking forward into the cavernous well deck of the USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41). This deck can accommodate up to four LCACs or three LCUs. or be used to store vehicles.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  The most notable features of the Whidbey Island class are the large deckhouse forward for stowage and accommodations, and long well deck, topped by a flight deck with a pair of landing spots for helicopters up to the size of a CH-53E Sea Stallion. Since the class lacks hanga
r or support facilities, no helicopters are based aboard while on cruise, and LSD-41s can only refuel helicopters based on other ships. The well deck has room for up to four LCACs, three LCUs, or ten LCM-8s should there be a need to utilize those older craft. The well deck resembles the one on Wasp, using ballast tanks to lower the stern and flood the deck so landing craft can arrive or depart. Measuring 440 ft/141.1 m in length, 50 ft/15.2 m in width, and 27 ft./8.2 m. in height, it is the largest well deck on any amphibious ship. Landing craft park end-to-end, as on Wasp, and can be loaded by driving vehicle through one landing craft to get to another.

  Despite their minimalist design, the LSD-41s are quite capable at handling landing craft and off-loading cargo. They carry two electric two-ton forklifts, two pallet jacks, two five-ton rough terrain forklifts, an eight-ton cargo elevator, and three large cranes with (fifteen, twenty, and sixty ton capacity). A special turntable in the ramp between the well and helicopter decks speeds vehicle movement and handling. With 13,500 ft of vehicle space and 5,100 ft of cargo space, they are smaller than the LHDs and LHAs, but still capable of carrying a useful payload. Berthing space for up to 454 Marines is similar to what we saw on Wasp.

  The LSD-41 s lack many of the features found on the Wasp class. These include:

  • Command and Control Facilities—The LSD-41 s have only a CIC and a Tactical Landing Support Group space. There are no provisions for a flag staff, and no flag plot.

  • Medical Facilities—The Whidbey Island class has only a single operating theater and eight beds (one intensive care, two isolation, five primary care), with no real overflow capability. It depends on the large-deck amphibs for medical support. The landing dock ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49), It is a near-copy of the USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41), but its well deck has been shortened to provide more cargo and vehicule stowage and one cargo crane has been deleted.

  JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER

  • Sensors—SPS-49 air search, SPS-64 (V)9 navigation, and SPS-67 surface-search radars are carried. There are no fire-control systems of any kind.

  • Defensive Armament — The LSD-41s are armed with only a pair of Mk 16 20mm CIWS, two Mk 67 25mm Bushmaster cannon mounts, and two mounts for M2 .50-cal. machine guns. The basic SLQ-32 (V)1 electronic warfare suite has only a radar-warning receiver and four Mk 137 SRBOC/decoy launchers. They also have an SLQ-25 Nixie system. No radar jammer is fitted. These ships require combatant escort to survive in a hostile environment.

  Though the Whidbey Island ships seem austere compared to Wasp-class LHDs, they do have features that make them valuable amphibs, including:

  • Structures/Protection—The LSD-41s have the same structural protection as the Wasp class, including hardening of the deckhouse against fragment damage from a near miss.

  • Environmental Protection—The Whidbey Island class has the same kind of nuclear/chemical/biological CPS system as the LHDs, and thus the same levels of air-conditioned comfort.

  How would all this work in combat? Consider the following example. In most cases, the ARG staff will load up the LSD-41 with heavy vehicles like M 1A1 Abrams tanks and wheeled LAVs. This provides an armored punch for the early waves of a Marine assault or raid. Once Whidbey Island's own load of equipment and cargo is off-loaded, the landing craft help other ships to unload vehicles and cargo, thus speeding the flow of combat power to the beach. This secondary role of landing craft base is what makes the LSDs so valuable to an ARG commander.

  A total of eight LSD-41s were built. These include three Lockheed-built units; Whidbey Island (LSD-41), Germantown (LSD-42), and Fort McHenry (LSD-43), plus five Avondale-produced ships: Gunston Hall (LSD-44), Comstock (LSD-45), Tortuga (LSD-46), Rushmore (LSD-47), and Ashland (LSD-48). Four additional units are being built to a modified configuration that has an interesting origin. You see, the new amphibious ships, when combined with over-the-horizon delivery systems like the CH-53E Sea Stallion and LCAC, can actually put troops, vehicles, and cargo onto a beach faster than Navy beachmasters can handle it. There is a physical limit to how fast you can move stuff over a beach, and the beach control parties that serve as the ARGs "traffic cops" have hit that limit. The LCACs turned out to be faster at doing their jobs than expected. This gave NAVSEA an opportunity to modify the last four ships of the LSD-41 class. Since the new LHDs could carry up to three LCACs, and the older LPD-4 class assault ships could carry two, this meant that an ARG only required two more to reach the desired level of seven such craft. So, the last four units of the Whidbey Island class, redesignated the Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) class, were redesigned with a shortened well deck (only 184 ft/56 m long). The remaining space would be used to enlarge the vehicle and cargo footprints of the new ships, as the table below shows:

  LSD-41/49 vs. LSD-36 Payload Footprints

  As you can see, the cargo/vehicle space in LSD-49 has been expanded by 15 % over LSD-41, and the cargo space by a whopping 994 %. This makes the LSD-49s very valuable amphibious ships. Any CO of a forward-deployed unit will tell you that they never have enough stowage space for "stuff," and the trade-off on these ships makes them an outstanding value for the money. All four—Harpers Ferry (LSD-49), Carter Hall (LSD-50), Oak Hill (LSD-51), and Pearl Harbor (LSD-52-named for the facility, not the battle!) — are built by Avondale in New Orleans. The first two are already in service, and the other two are scheduled for completion by early 1997. One LSD-41/49 will be assigned to each of the Navy's 12 ARGs. Right now, 12 ARGs only provide about 2.5 MEBs of lift, as opposed to the 3 that the Marine Corps considers necessary to meet mission requirements. Additional LSDs are unlikely though, since the Navy is committed to construct new LPD-17-class assault ships to replace aging Austin-class LPDs.

  USS Shreveport (LPD-12)

  The USS Shreveport (LPD-12) leaves Morehead City, N.C., on August 29th, 1995, on her way to the Mediterranean. She is fully loaded for "split ARG" operations, and is headed to Bulgaria for an exercise.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  The Landing Assault Ship USS Shreveport (LPD-12) is a living legacy of the 1960s-era shipbuilding program that has been the backbone of the amphibious force for three decades. While old by warship standards (she was commissioned in 1970), cramped, and antiquated compared to contemporary designs, she still has many years of service ahead. Part of the eleven-ship Austin class (LPD-4 to -15), Shreveport may serve for another ten to fifteen years. The LPD is the "swing" ship — a virtual "utility infielder" among the three ships that usually comprise an ARG. While the LHDs/LHAs and LSDs work together as the "big" decks of the ARG, the LPD is a general-purpose workhorse, taking on missions that used to be assigned to the LSTs and LKAs. When an ARG splits to undertake more than one mission at a time, the LPD is frequently on her own. LPDs tend to pick up the stray "cats and dogs" of the embarked MEU (SOC), such as amphibious tractors, Force Recon teams, and the SEAL team. They act as a floating Forward Fuel and Arming Point (FFARP) for helicopters, and a base for the AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters and the embarked Pioneer UAV unit. That's a lot to ask of an old ship like Shreveport (LPD-12), but she does her best in a world where she is little loved, but heavily used.

  A side view of the multipurpose amphibious ship USS Shreveport (LPD-12).

  JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD, BY LAURA ALPHAER

  The original LPDs of the Raleigh class (LPD-1) were designed in the late 1950s to transport a large load of amphibious troops and supplies, at the expense of off-load capability. LPDs have relatively small well decks compared to the LHAs, LHDs, and LSDs, as well as smaller aviation facilities, with only a single helicopter landing pad. They are nevertheless one of the three types of amphibious ships that will survive (along with the big deck LHDs/LHAs and the LSD) into the 21st century. There even are plans to build a new class of twelve (the LPD-17s), though the LPD-4s will stay around for almost a decade before these new ships enter service. Following the three Raleigh-class ships, a further class of LPDs was constructed in the late 1960s. These became the Austin class (LPD-4), in ser
vice around the world today.

  The Shreveport and her sister ships look a lot like the older LSD-36-class dockships, except that they have a larger superstructure, as well as a shorter main deck/helicopter platform and well deck. She is some 570 ft/173.7 m long, with a beam of 84 ft/25.6 m, and a nominal draft (with the ballast tanks dry) of 23 ft/7 m. Full displacement is 16,905 tons. The twelve ships of the class were constructed in three separate shipyards. USS Austin (LPD-4), USS Ogden (LPD-5), and USS Duluth (LPD-6) were built at the government-owned New York Naval Shipyard, some of the last U.S. warships built there. Ingalls built USS Cleveland (LPD-7) and USS Dubuque (LPD-8) at Ingalls in Pascagoula, Mississippi. USS Denver (LPD-9), USS Juneau (LPD-10), USS Coronado (LPD-11), USS Shreveport (LPD-12), USS Nashville (LPD- 13), USS Trenton (LPD-14), and USS Ponce (LPD-15), were all built by Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle. Coronado (LPD-11) was converted into a command ship.

  Shreveport (LPD-12) was laid down in Seattle, Washington, on December 27th, 1965, launched on October 25th, 1966, and commissioned on December 12th, 1970. She is powered by two 2.600-PSI Babcock and Wilcox boilers feeding a pair of De Laval steam turbines for a total of 24,000 hp to the twin shafts. Maximum speed is 21 kt/38.4 kph, though the efficiency of the powerplant allows it to cruise at 20 kt/ 36.6 kph. The steam plant is old and cranky by comparison to newer Navy steam, diesel, and gas turbine ships. Nevertheless, her dedicated "snipes" keep her going. Shreveport is one of nine ships in the class with extra bridge and berthing space, so it can act as a squadron flagship in "split ARG" operations.