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AV-8B Harrier jump jets or F-35B Short anti-missile launchers (6 kilometer (1,490 meter range). One RAM and one on the port corner of the stern. Seven takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) range), two eight-cell Sea Sparrow Mis- ESSM launcher is located forward of the twin .50cal heavy machine guns line the stealth ? ghter-bombers. UH-IY heli- sile launchers ? ring the Evolved Sea bridge while a CIWS is positioned over port and starboard sides for close-in de- copters provide aerial Command and Sparrow Missile (ESSM) (50+ kilometer the bridge for forward coverage. The fense against small surface threats. USS

Control. According to NAVSEA, “LHA range), and two 20mm Phalanx Close-in other RAM is located on the starboard America also carries an electronic war- 6 carries various mixes of aircraft (air- Weapons Systems (CIWS) with radar stern corner with the ESSM in the mid- fare sensor suite and anti-missile decoy planes and helicopters), with the concept and Forward Looking Infrared sensors dle of the stern and the remaining CIWS launchers for self-protection.

of operations dictating the speci? c air- craft amounts [carried].”

Depending on the mission, the aircraft complement could be arranged to carry 20 F-35B STOVL ? ghter-bombers and two MH-60Ss, in essence turning this

Amphibious Assault Ship into a small aircraft carrier. Like previous amphibi- ous assault ships, the LHA 6 does not have a skijump at the bow so Harriers and F-35Bs line up at the stern and travel the length of the ship to take off. Her ? ight deck is constructed of HY100- strength steel, the same high-hardness steel used to build the hull of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines. The deck has been designed to stand up to the high heat of the V-22 Ospreys and F-35Bs’ down- ward facing exhaust nozzles.

The America-class can accommodate 65 of? cers and 994 enlisted personnel and can carry 1,687 Marines. Since the

America does not have a well deck, only those Marine vehicles that could be air- transported via CH-53Es and V-22s are carried. Those air-transportable Marine vehicles include High Mobility Multi- purpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) and Light Armored Vehicles slung-load- ed under a CH-53E, and the M1161 and

M1163 “Growler” Interim Tactical ve- hicles and the Expeditionary Fire Sup- port System (120mm mortar) carried internally by V-22 aircraft. U.S. Navy

SEALs can be inserted via the MH-60S.

Marine Corps vehicles that are unable to be of? oaded by aircraft aboard USS

America include the M1A1 Abrams

Main Battle Tanks, AAV7 Amphibious

Assault Vehicles, M88 Recovery Ve- hicles, M1 Assault Breacher Vehicles,

Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement trucks and the M777 lightweight towed howitzers, Mine Resistant Ambush Pro- tected Vehicles (MRAP), MRAP All-

Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV), and High

Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HI-

MARS). These heavy vehicles will not be carried aboard the USS America. The second America-class ship, the USS

Tripoli (LHA 7), is under construction and will be a nearly identical copy of the USS America. LHAs following the

Tripoli will have a well-deck built in to allow the transport of all Marine armor and vehicles.

The USS America is armed with two 21-cell Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) www.marinelink.com 37

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