US Navy’s First-Ever Flight II Amphibious Warship Completes Sea Trials

USS Harrisburg (LPD 30), the first Flight II ship of the San Antonio-class, has finished its builder’s sea trials, HII said.

The ship spent several days at sea, with the trials ending on Saturday, October 31. Tests covered propulsion and steering, along with ship control, communications, mission systems, and the integration of combat systems.

After meeting the major test objectives, the ship sailed back to the Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula. Acceptance trials come next, and the company expects to hand the ship to the Navy later this year.

A senior Ingalls manager for amphibious ship programs said that the trials are a key step on the way to delivering the ship to the fleet.

He said that the ship would strengthen the Navy and the Marine Corps for generations.

The Flight II ships carry more than 200 modifications compared with the Flight I ships.

The Flight II design uses Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6(V)2 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, which is the smallest version of the SPY-6 family.

A steel mast replaces the composite enclosed mast fitted to the early San Antonio-class ships.

HII announced the $1.47 billion fixed-price incentive contract for USS Harrisburg on March 26, 2019.

The ship was launched in October 2024 and christened in January 2025.

No other yard builds San Antonio-class ships. Ingalls has delivered LPDs 17 to 29 to the Navy.

The Ingalls yard is also working on Pittsburgh (LPD 31) and Philadelphia (LPD 32), both of them Flight II ships.

The San Antonio-class replaced the Austin, Anchorage, Charleston, and Newport-class amphibious ships, with USS San Antonio (LPD 17) commissioned as the lead ship on January 14, 2006.

Each San Antonio-class ship measures 684 feet in length with a displacement of about 25,000 tons.

The flight deck and hangar of a San Antonio-class ship can hold two CH-53E heavy-lift helicopters, two V-22 tiltrotors or four combat helicopter gunships.

The well deck of a San Antonio-class ship can launch two large landing craft.

References: HII, Naval Today, Naval News, U.S. Naval Institute, Wikipedia