An artist’s concept of the 12th San Antonio-class (LPD-17) amphibious warship Fort Lauderdale. HII Image
The Navy signed a $1.4 billion contract with Ingalls Shipbuilding for the LPD-29 San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.
The ship will be the 13th in a class that has varied in planned size over the years but as of just a few years ago was meant to stop at 11.
With a hot production line often delivering ships on time or early, the Navy and lawmakers added the future
Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) and then LPD-29 to the plans to help bridge the production line between the San Antonio-class LPDs and the LPD-based LX(R)s that will replace the aging dock landing ships (LSD-41/49).
Lawmakers sought to provide some funding for either an LPD-30 or the first LX(R) in FY 2018, this current fiscal year, though the spending plan has still not been approved by Congress. House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee chairman Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) this week called finalizing the funding for that ship a top priority for Congress.
Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego will compete for the LX(R) construction contract, though it is generally assumed that Ingalls will build those ships to leverage the hot LPD production line......snip~
https://news.usni.org/2018/02/16/nav...uilding-lpd-29
Well......what do you think. Should we go with the upgrade or the LX-R