Huntington Ingalls Industries' (NYSE:HII), Ingalls Shipbuilding authenticated the keel of the company's 11th amphibious transport dock ship, Portland (LPD 27), the shipbuilder's news release said.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Amos, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and principal speaker for the ceremony, noted the first-in-class USS San Antonio (LPD 17) was presently off the coast of Yemen alongside another Ingalls-built ship, USS Kearsarge (LHD 3).
LPD 27, named in honor of Oregon's most populated city, is currently about seven percent complete. The ship is scheduled to launch in early 2016 and is scheduled to deliver to the U.S. Navy in late 2017. Somerset (LPD 25) is currently preparing for builder's sea trials and John P. Murtha (LPD 26) is currently 50 percent complete and will launch next year.
Bonnie Amos, wife of Gen. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, is the ship's sponsor. She authenticated the keel of LPD 27 saying it had been "truly and fairly laid." Her name was welded onto a steel plate by Ingalls welder Marty Peterson.
Ingalls Shipbuilding is building the entire LPD 17 San Antonio Class of ships, the newest addition to the Navy's 21st century amphibious assault force. To date, eight ships have been delivered to the Navy. The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies ashore via embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the Osprey. The ships will continue to support amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare and humanitarian missions throughout the first half of the century.
In addition to more than 10,000 Ingalls shipbuilders, there are 650 suppliers from 38 states which support the LPD 17 program. Ingalls spends approximately $175 million a year with this vital industrial base.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder at its Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions. Employing about 37,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, HII also provides a wide variety of products and services to the commercial energy industry and other government customers, including the Department of Energy.
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