CORRECTION: A previous version of this post said the late John P. Murtha was a senator from Pennsylvania. He was in fact a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 12th district from 1974 until his death in 2010. USNI News regrets the error.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has launched the tenth San Antonio-class (LPD-17) amphibious warship on Thursday.
The John P. Murtha (LPD-26) — named after the late influential Pennsylvania U.S. congressman — took to the water for the first time on Thursday when it was lowered into the Gulf of Mexico at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss.
“This ship is tracking to be one of our best LPDs ever, and it is the most complete ship at launch to date,” Ingalls president Brian Cuccias said in a statement from the company.
“We are incorporating learning from each ship to improve our performance in both cost and schedule. Our hot production line in LPD construction provides efficiencies in day-to-day work efforts and helps stabilize the program and the associated supplier base.”
The 25,000-ton Murtha is expected to commission in 2016 and is the penultimate San Antonio-class ship unless a proposal — backed by the Marine Corps — for a 12th LPD-17 is approved by Congress.
Portland (LPD-27) is scheduled to launch in 2016.
Earlier this month, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signed out a memo saying that the LPD-17 hull design is the Navy’s preferred design for the construction of the Navy’s next generation amphibious warship — LX(R).
