Aboard the USS Gunston Hall–One of the Navy’s premiere amphibious warfare ships will soon be able to support a number of more advanced aircraft, including the MV-22 Osprey, completing the Navy’s plan to have its dock landing ships outfitted with that capability.
The USS Gunston Hall (LSD44), a Whidbey Island-class amphibious support vessel, is scheduled to undergo the upgrade work as part of its upcoming ship availability this month, according to Capt. John Meier.
Speaking to Defense Daily here during operational evaluation exercises off the coast of Virginia, Meier said the upgrade work focuses on improving heat and downwash protection, as well as other aspects of the ship’s landing deck.
Additionally, the port and starboard nylon safety nets and steel frames will be hardened, while a number of the ship’s deck hatches will be replaced “to ensure compatibility with the MV-22 Osprey during flight operations.” Lt. Cdr. Bill Urban, spokesman for Naval Surface Force-Atlantic, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Heat shielding work, he added, will consist of adding protective covers to exposed wiring on the deck’s surface. However, Urban did note that the characteristics of the flight deck itself will not be changed.
Those improvements, once complete, will allow the vessel to support most every aviation asset “just short of” fixed-wing, vertical-lift aircraft, such as the Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier and the service’s variant of the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter.
The Gunston Hall will be the last of the Whidbey Island-class and Harper’s Ferry-class amphibious warships in the command to receive the flight deck upgrades.
Prior to the upgrade work, the largest aircraft the flight decks on board the LSD fleet was the CH-53E Super Stallion or MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters, or the Army’s CH-47 Chinook. The larger amphibious assault and transport dock ships Navy’s fleet, such as the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) and the San Antonio-class boat, can support those rotorcraft as well as either the Harrier or Osprey.
But once complete, the upgraded landing deck on the Gunston Hall will have the capability to handle Osprey operations, along with the initial compliment of rotary-wing aircraft, Meier said.
The maintenance work now scheduled for the Gunston Hall later this month will be carried out under Continuous Maintenance Availability (CMAV), rather than a full ship availability visit, according to Urban. But that CMAV will retain “the majority of items contained in the [original] avail”, including the MV-22 modifications.
The ship’s original ship availability had originally been scheduled for April in Norfolk, Va. The Oliver Perry Hazard-class frigate USS Underwood was also set to undergo maintenance at the same time in Mayport, FL. However, U.S. Fleet Forces Command cancelled those availabilities, along with several others set for the following month–including one for the amphibious assault ship, USS Peleliu–at the direction of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.
The cancellations were the result of congressional bickering over fiscal year 2011 defense spending levels earlier this year. Eventually, lawmakers and the White House were able to hash out their differences and approved defense funding for the remainder of FY ’11.
But during that time, the crew of the Gunston Hall carried out emergency humanitarian operations in Haiti and a deployment in support of U.S. Africa Command’s partnership station, all without going through the previously scheduled dockside maintenance work. Once the CMAV is complete, the ship is scheduled for another six-month deployment in support of the Africa Partnership Station for AFRICOM.