Tarawa Class Lha Parts

Tarawa Class Lha

The Tarawa class was a ship class of amphibious assault ships/LHA operated by the United States Navy (USN). Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between 1971 and 1980; another four ships were planned, but later canceled. As of March 2015, all vessels have been decommissioned. The class was replaced by the America-class amphibious assault ships from 2014 onward.

The vessels have a full load displacement of 39,967 tonnes (39,336 long tons; 44,056 short tons).

Propulsion is provided by two Combustion Engineering boilers, connected to two Westinghouse turbines.

As of 1998, the ships' armament consists of a Mark 49 RAM surface-to-air missile system, two Vulcan Phalanx close-in weapons systems, six Mark 242 25 mm automatic cannons, and eight 12.7 mm machine guns.

The number of helicopters carried by each vessel was up to 19 Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallions, 26 Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight, or a mix of the two.

The Tarawa-class ships are designed to embark a reinforced battalion of the United States Marine Corps and their equipment.