Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship

USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2)
Class overview
Builders:	Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Ingalls Shipbuilding
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceded by:	Essex class (some ships converted)
Succeeded by:	Tarawa class
In commission:	1961–2002
Completed:	7
Active:	0
Laid up:	1
Retired:	7
General characteristics
Type:	Amphibious Assault Ship (LPH)
Displacement:	18,474 tons (full) 11,000 tons (light)
Length:	592 ft (180 m)
Beam:	84 ft (26 m)
Draft:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	2 × 600 psi (4.1 MPa) boilers, one geared steam turbine, one shaft, 22,000 shaft horsepower (16 MW)
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h)
Troops:	2,157
Complement:	667
Armament:	Initially: 4 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber AA guns Later: 2 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber AA guns, 8 cell Sea Sparrow BPDMS launchers, 2 × Phalanx CIWS
Aviation facilities:	25 helicopters or AV-8 Harriers Flight deck width: 105 ft (32 m)

The Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy were the first amphibious assault ships designed and built as dedicated helicopter carriers, capable of operating up to 20 helicopters to carry up to 1,800 marines ashore. They were named for battles featuring the United States Marine Corps, starting with the Battle of Iwo Jima. The first ship of the class was commissioned in 1961, and the last was decommissioned in 2002. Because these ships bore the hull classification of LPH they have often been referred to as "Landing Platform, Helicopter".

Ships of the class:

Name	Hull number	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Iwo Jima	LPH-2	Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton	2 April 1959	17 September 1960	26 August 1961	Broken up at Brownsville, 1996
Okinawa	LPH-3	Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia	1 April 1960	19 August 1961	14 April 1962	Sunk as target, 6 June 2002
Guadalcanal	LPH-7		1 September 1961	16 March 1963	20 July 1963	Sunk as target, 19 May 2005
Guam	LPH-9		15 November 1962	22 August 1964	16 January 1965	Sunk as target, 16 October 2001
Tripoli	LPH-10	Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula	15 June 1964	31 July 1965	6 August 1966	Converted to missile trial launch platform
New Orleans	LPH-11	Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia	1 March 1966	3 February 1968	16 November 1968	Sunk as target, 10 July 2010
Inchon	LPH-12	Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascasgoula	8 April 1968	24 May 1969	20 June 1970	Sunk as target, 5 December 2004

Popular culture

One of the Iwo Jima class ships served as the fieldsite in Edwin Hutchins's classic cognitive science study Cognition in the Wild.^[1] Although Hutchins does not mention the ship class by name, on p. 7 he characterizes it as a 603-foot-long (184 m) amphibious helicopter carrier.

References

1. Hutchins, Edwin (1995). Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press.

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