USS Tortuga (LSD-46)

Fully loaded 15,939 ts

185.6 meters

25.6 meters

6.4 meters

22 officers, 391 teams, up to 500 Marines

2 propellers, four diesel engines; 33,000 shaft horsepower

20 nodes

2 phalanx, 2 starters for air defense missiles

The USS Tortuga (LSD- 46) is a dock landing ship of the United States Navy and is one of Whidbey - Iceland - class. It was named after the Dry Tortuga Islands in the Dry Tortugas National Park.

History

LSD -46 was commissioned in 1984 and 1987 laid at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans, Louisiana on Kiel. After one and a half years of construction, the Tortuga ran on 15 September 1988 from the stack. The launch was brought forward by two months, so that the ship could escape the hurricane Gilbert, who moved in September 1988 by the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana but ultimately not met. The commissioning took place in late 1990.

2002 Tortuga ran in front of Morehead City, North Carolina due to, but was not seriously damaged, there were no casualties. The ship was in the battle group led by the USS Nassau ( LHA -4) on the go. 2005 moved the ship in May with USS Cole ( DDG 67) and USS Anzio (CG -68). Together they participated in BALTOPS, a multinational exercise in the Baltic Sea. This was followed by attendance at the Kiel Week 2005, unusually for a U.S. warship of this kind and magnitude. Following the Tortuga was used off the coast of New Orleans, where she helped the injured and homeless.

In 2006, the Tortuga, currently stationed in Norfolk, a hull swap with her ​​stationed in Japan sister ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD -43 ). The ships exchanged both the base and the crew. After three months of Eingewöhnzeit the Tortuga left her new home port, and participated in the exercise CARAT. In 2008, she led a task force during a CARAT exercise with the Malaysian Navy. 2009 moved the Tortuga with the USS Essex (LHD -2) in the Western Pacific. Among other things, she took part in the exercise Talisman Saber with Australian forces in part. After the typhoons Parma and Katsana had made the Philippines the Tortuga was with USS Harpers Ferry ( LSD 49) and USS Denver (LPD -9) sent to the region to support local disaster relief. In March 2011, the ship was sent to the coast of Japan to stand by after the Tōhoku earthquake on emergency assistance. In June 2011, she then took part in an exercise with the Malaysian Navy in part, in early 2012 at the Cobra Gold exercise off the coast of Thailand in part.

According to Jane 's Information Group, the ship in the fiscal years 2013 or 2014 is to be made under savings from service.