USS San Antonio (LPD-17)
Fully loaded 24,900 ts
208.05 m
31.9 m
7.0 m
28 officers, 332 teams, up to 800 Marines
2 propellers, four diesel engines; 41,000 shaft horsepower
22 nodes
2 guns 30 mm, 2 starters for air defense missiles
The USS San Antonio (LPD - 17) is an Amphibious Transport Dock of the United States Navy and is the lead ship of the San Antonio class. It is named after the city of San Antonio in Texas.
History
LPD -17 was commissioned in late 1996 in order and four years later laid at Avondale Shipyard in Kiel. After about two and a half years, the ship was launched from the dock, godmother was U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the former U.S. President George HW Bush spoke at the ceremony. In fact, the ship was far from completion. From the start, grabbed corrosion on the hull, the wiring was poorly executed craft. Ultimately had to San Antonio in 2004 to be towed to Ingalls Shipbuilding, to be completed there. It was not until mid-2005, the ship was finally handed over to the U.S. Navy, but was still not operational.
Three days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast went to the crew on board. As the ship was not certified for the high seas, they had the storm before Pascagoula riding, with slight damage incurred. In early 2006, the ship was put into service.
As use continued to be excluded, the ship was docked in Norfolk in 2006 and overhauled there. The San Antonio where the USS Iwo Jima side ( LHD -7) until the end of August 2008 should be first used operationally. However, some days before the drop occurred on a fault at the main gate, which delayed the voyage of the San Antonio by one week. Even during the first mission, the San Antonio had to be overhauled for 1.4 million U.S. dollars, after licking lubricating oil lines on the trip in November four weeks in Bahrain. Problems of this type have been seen since 2005.
In December 2009, went to San Antonio in the Earl Industries Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The overhaul should take four to five months and cost about $ 5 million. However, after serious problems were found with the drive system, the wait time was extended to at least eleven months costs increased to $ 39 million (as of October 2010), but will rise until the end of the work further. In September 2010 the ship was towed into the Naval Station Norfolk, where the repairs were completed in mid-2011. This missed the San Antonio their originally planned for 2011 second mission trip. In their place, the USS Mesa Verde (LPD -19) will accompany the USS Bataan (LHD -5). Re- testing took place in June 2011 and were positive. But in July were again problems with the diesel engines that are to be resolved in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. In August 2011, the San Antonio to start training and then in 2012 to be laid.