U.S. Navy Commissions Amphibious Transport Dock Ship San Diego

The Navy will com­mis­sion the newest San Anto­nio-class amphibi­ous trans­port dock ship San Diego dur­ing a 10 a.m. PDT cer­e­mo­ny Sat­ur­day, May 19, 2012, in San Diego, Calif.

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The ship is named for the city of San Diego, prin­ci­pal home­port of the Pacif­ic fleet, and hon­ors the peo­ple of “America’s Finest City” and its lead­ers for their con­tin­u­ous sup­port of the military. 

Three pre­vi­ous ships have car­ried the name San Diego — the armored cruis­er named in 1914, the World War II-era cruis­er com­mis­sioned in 1942 and the com­bat stores ship com­mis­sioned in 1969. 

Adm. Mark Fer­gu­son, vice chief of naval oper­a­tions, will deliv­er the ceremony’s prin­ci­pal address. Addi­tion­al remarks will be giv­en by Jer­ry Sanders, may­or, City of San Diego; Sean J. Stack­ley, assis­tant sec­re­tary of the Navy (research, devel­op­ment and acqui­si­tion); Vice Adm. Richard W. Hunt, com­man­der Naval Sur­face Forces; Maj. Gen. Ronald Bai­ley, com­mand­ing gen­er­al, 1st Marine Divi­sion; and Rear Adm. David H. Lewis, pro­gram exec­u­tive offi­cer — ships. 

Lin­da Win­ter, wife of For­mer Sec­re­tary of the Navy Don­ald C. Win­ter, is serv­ing as the ship’s spon­sor. In a time-hon­ored Navy tra­di­tion, she will give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!” 

Des­ig­nat­ed as LPD 22, the USS San Diego is the sixth amphibi­ous trans­port dock ship in the San Anto­nio class. The prin­ci­pal mis­sion of LPD 17 San Anto­nio-class ships is to deploy com­bat and sup­port ele­ments of Marine Expe­di­tionary Units and Brigades. With the capa­bil­i­ty of trans­port­ing and debark­ing air cush­ion or con­ven­tion­al land­ing craft and aug­ment­ed by heli­copters or MV-22 ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing air­craft, these ships sup­port amphibi­ous assault, spe­cial oper­a­tions, and expe­di­tionary war­fare mis­sions. The USS San Diego will pro­vide improved warfight­ing capa­bil­i­ties includ­ing an advanced com­mand-and-con­trol suite, increased lift capa­bil­i­ty in vehi­cle and car­go-car­ry­ing capac­i­ty, and advanced ship sur­viv­abil­i­ty features. 

Cmdr. Kevin P. Mey­ers, a native of Bal­ti­more, is the com­mand­ing offi­cer of the ship, lead­ing a crew of approx­i­mate­ly 377 offi­cers and enlist­ed per­son­nel. Upon com­mis­sion­ing, the USS San Diego will be home­port­ed in San Diego, Calif., as a part of the U.S. Third Fleet. 

Built by Hunt­ing­ton Ingalls Indus­tries in Pascagoula, Miss., the USS San Diego is 684 feet in length, has an over­all beam of 105 feet, a nav­i­ga­tion­al draft of 23 feet, dis­places about 24,900 tons and is capa­ble of embark­ing a land­ing force of about 800 Marines. Four tur­bo-charged diesel engines pow­er the ship to sus­tained speeds in excess of 22 knots. 

This event will be aired live on the U.S. Navy Face­book page http://www.facebook.com/usnavy and Livestream chan­nel (http://www.livestream.com/usnavy) begin­ning at 10 a.m. PDT. 

For more infor­ma­tion about this class of ship, please vis­it the Navy Fact File: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=600&ct=4 .

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)