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Published: 2014-10-12 06:23:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 1920; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 25
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USS America (LHA-6), the first America class amphibious assault ship, and fourth vessel of the United States Navy to bear the name. She was commissioned here earlier today as part of San Francisco's Fleet Week events.San Francisco, CA, 2014
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Comments: 6
Funny how what was then called an 'Escort Carrier', is now an 'Assault Ship' with the same size of what was simply called a Carrier. And what was once a Carrier is now ungodly huge, and is now called a 'Super Carrier'.
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There's a slight difference - WW2 escort carriers carried the same planes as the big fleet carriers, just fewer of them. The idea was to have a ship that could provide air cover, but that you could build and put to sea fast and cheap. A modern amphibious assault ship isn't big enough to launch F-18s, just helicopters and Harriers (and F-35s when they become available) but the big offensive capability is the embarked Marine expeditionary force.
The America is about 40' shorter than a WW2 Lexington class aircraft carrier, and nearly 200' shorter than a Nimitz. Here's a handy chart that takes far too long to load: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipediaβ¦
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... You know I was approximating. 40' is close enough for me. Besides the ground attack role that was once the primary goal of the escort carriers, is now that of the Assault ship.
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I heard she was being commissioned this week.
Nice shot.
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