Jump to content

USS San Diego (LPD-22)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

USS San Diego (LPD-22)
USS San Diego on 6 April 2012
History
United States
NameSan Diego
NamesakeSan Diego
Awarded1 June 2006[1]
BuilderNGSS Ingalls
Laid down23 May 2007[1]
Launched7 May 2010[1]
Christened12 June 2010
Commissioned19 May 2012[1]
Home portSasebo[1]
Identification
Motto
  • Semper Vigilans
  • (Always vigilant)
Statusin active service
Badge
General characteristics
Class & typeSan Antonio-class amphibious transport dock
Displacement25,000 tons full
Length
  • 208.5 m (684 ft) overall,
  • 201.4 m (661 ft) waterline
Beam
  •   31.9 m (105 ft) extreme,
  •   29.5 m (97 ft) waterline
Draft    7 m (23 ft)
PropulsionFour Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, two shafts, 40,000 hp (30 MW)
Speed22 knots (41 km/h)
Boats & landing
craft carried
  • Two LCACs (air cushion)
  • or one LCU (conventional)
Capacity699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge to 800 total.
Complement28 officers, 333 enlisted
Armament
Aircraft carriedFour CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft may be launched or recovered simultaneously.

USS San Diego (LPD-22), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for San Diego, California.

Construction

[edit]

Ship's name

[edit]

Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England named the San Diego on 30 April 2004:

San Diego is home to a large number of the Pacific Fleet's ships. For decades our nation's sailors and Marines have begun their service to America at boot camps in San Diego. Thousands of military families and veterans have fallen in love with the area, and are fortunate enough to live and work in San Diego. USS San Diego will project American power to the far corners of the earth and support the cause of freedom well into the 21st century.

The city is the home of Naval Base San Diego, the Navy's largest base in the Pacific, and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, the United States Marine Corps' west coast recruit training center.

San Diego's keel was laid down on 23 May 2007, at Northrop Grumman's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 7 May 2010,[2] and christened on 12 June, sponsored by Linda Winter, wife of former Navy secretary Donald C. Winter.[3][4]

On 1 October 2011, it was announced that San Diego had completed her builders trials, including tests of her defensive, communications, propulsion, and other auxiliary systems, leaving only the repair of issues that arose in the builders trials and thereafter Navy Acceptance Trials before delivery.[5] Her acceptance trials were completed on 17 November,[6] ahead of her delivery to the Navy on 19 December.[7]

Commissioning

[edit]

San Diego departed Pascagoula on 15 March 2012[8] and arrived at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 19 March for a three-day layover on her way to San Diego.[9] San Diego passed through the Panama Canal on 25 March. She arrived in San Diego on 6 April. San Diego was commissioned on 19 May 2012, in a ceremony at the Navy Pier (next to the USS Midway Museum) in San Diego.[10]

Operational history

[edit]
USS San Diego (LPD-22) in the Red Sea in October 2014.

In late 2014, San Diego operated with the Makin Island Amphibious ready group in the United States Fifth Fleet area.

In March 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that USS Tripoli had been deployed, and was en route, to the Middle East to provide support for Operation Epic Fury.[11] Tripoli is part of an amphibious ready group (ARG), and is being accompanied by San Diego and USS New Orleans.[12][13] The ARG is reportedly transporting around 2,200 Marine Corps personnel from the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and will join the USS Abraham Lincoln-led Carrier Strike Group 3 which is already deployed in the region.[14][15]

San Diego and New Orleans crossed the strait one day prior to Tripoli which was approaching the northern exit of the Strait of Malacca on 17 March 2026 as per the AIS tracking data accessed by the CNN.[14][15] As of 20 March, the ships are located to the south of Sri Lanka and is expected to enter the Arabian Sea the following week and will reach the war theatre around 22–23 March.[16][17]

Meanwhile, the president of the United States has explained in a press conference that he is not "putting troops anywhere" though he would not tell the journalists even if he had taken such decision. However, Reuters cited multiple US security officials saying that the Trump administration is still "considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East". The ARG deployment might also be used to free or open the Strait of Hormuz or assaulting the Kharg Island. There has been no firm decision.[18][19]

On 19 March 2026, Newsmax reported that USS Rushmore might join the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group since San Diego, which initially sailed with Tripoli and New Orleans, is expected to "hang back" to the Pacific for maintenance which was in the Philippine Sea. On the other hand, the US military also accelerated the deployment of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group from San Diego.[20]

Incidents

[edit]

Coronavirus pandemic

[edit]

On 17 July 2020, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that sailors of San Diego had stated, on condition of anonymity, that at least five sailors from their ship had tested positive for COVID-19 during the preceding few days.[21] The sailors had been interviewed by the Union-Tribune presumably regarding a fire aboard nearby amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard.[21] In response, a Navy spokesperson confirmed that two sailors who were part of the firefighting effort had tested positive for the virus.[a][21]

The two sailors had shown symptoms of the disease.[21] One was part of a crew fighting the fire, and the other had been acting as support.[22] One sailor who fought in the fire stated that the fire had destroyed much of Bonhomme Richard's firefighting gear, so the gear of nearby ships, including that of San Diego, was being used, and sailors fighting the fire often swapped gear with each other.[21] In addition, 27 close contacts had been identified and placed in quarantine.[21]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the two sailors were from San Diego, while Navy Times reported that the spokesperson "declined to identify the local commands of the afflicted sailors, citing Defense Department policy for not naming units that suffer COVID-19 outbreaks".[21][22]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "USS San Diego (LPD 22)". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Future USS San Diego (LPD 22) Launched". Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Public Affairs. 18 May 2010. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  3. ↑ "Photo Release -- U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps Leadership Join Forces to Christen the Northrop Grumman-built San Diego (LPD 22)". Northrop Grumman Corporation. 12 June 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  4. ↑ "June 2010". Special Events Blog. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding (NGSB). Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  5. ↑ "Amphibious Transport Dock Ship USS San Diego Completes Builder's Sea Trials". Shipbuilding Tribune. 4 October 2011. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "U.S. Navy Finishes Acceptance Sea Trials for HII's Sixth Amphibious Transport Dock". Shipbuilding Tribune. 20 November 2011. Archived from the original on 12 December 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "U.S. Navy Accepts Delivery of Amphibious Transport Dock Ship San Diego". Shipbuilding Tribune. 19 December 2011. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
  8. ↑ "USS San Diego (LPD 22) Departs Ingalls Shipbuilding". Shipbuilding Tribune. 16 March 2012. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "USS San Diego Visits GTMO on Maiden Voyage". US Navy. 20 March 2012. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "USS San Diego LPD 22". Archived from the original on 21 May 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  11. ↑ Seligman, Lara (13 March 2026). "Pentagon Is Moving Additional Marines, Warships to the Middle East". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 March 2026.
  12. ↑ @visegrad24 (13 March 2026). "The U.S. is deploying 2,200 Marines and three amphibious warships from Japan to the Middle East, led by the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group:" (Tweet). Retrieved 20 March 2026 – via X (formerly Twitter).
  13. ↑ "Huge Navy warship formerly homeported in San Diego will transport Marines to Middle East". San Diego Union-Tribune. 13 March 2026. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
  14. 1 2 Lendon, Brad; Yee, Isaac (17 March 2026). "US warship believed to be carrying additional Marines to Middle East tracked off Singapore". CNN. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  15. 1 2 Mahadzir, Dzirhan (18 March 2026). "3-Ship Tripoli ARG, 31st MEU Transit Malacca Strait En Route to the Middle East". USNI News. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  16. ↑ Gupta, Shishir (20 March 2026). "US Navy giant 'Tripoli' set to enter warzone, may break Strait of Hormuz chokehold". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
  17. ↑ De, Abhishek (20 March 2026). "US troops to secure Hormuz, Kharg? New warship with 2,000 Marines on way". India Today. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
  18. ↑ Stewart, Phil; Ali, Idrees; Banco, Erin; Slattery, Gram (18 March 2026). "Exclusive: US weighs military reinforcements as Iran war enters possible new phase". Reuters. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
  19. ↑ Newdick, Thomas; Trevithick, Joseph (20 March 2026). "USS Boxer The Second Amphibious Assault Ship Now Heading To Middle East (Updated)". The War Zone. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  20. ↑ Reporter, Vic Verbalaitis Night Breaking News (19 March 2026). "Trump Plotting to Send Thousands More Troops to His War". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Sailors test positive for COVID-19 after sharing firefighting gear at San Diego ship fire". 18 July 2020.
  22. 1 2 "Two sailors who helped fight Bonhomme Richard fire test positive for COVID-19". 20 July 2020.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_San_Diego_(LPD-22)&oldid=1350297376"