The Navy’s newest large deck amphibious assault ship will be called the America, according to Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter who made the announcement in Jacksonville, Fla.
Winter said that the America will be sponsored by Lynn Pace, wife of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, according to a news release from the Department of Defense.
America is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2012, the release says. It’s under contract at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., the release says.
The former carrier America was based in Norfolk until it was retired in 1996. The Navy has not yet announced the home port of the new ship.
More than 800 people petitioned Winter to name the Navy’s newest carrier America while an effort in Congress was underway to name the ship after former President Gerald Ford.
An aircraft carrier eventually was named after Ford. The new America will be an amphibious assault ship, designed for troops and aircraft.
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New "America"
Not indignant, but disappointed. Of course, warship naming has been out of whack for some time. Why we no longer name the big-deck amphibs after famous Marine engagements needs to be explained - they're "Gator Freighters" after all. And we clearly need to revamp the naming of the CVNs. Traditionally named after famous warships that preceded them or major battles, there should always be an ENTERPRISE, ESSEX (yes, I know we wasted that name on a current amphib), and yes, AMERICA. But a FORD, or STENNIS or VINSON? Come on, we've got DDGs for those guys!
LHAs would be an Aircraft Carrier in any other Navy
For those expressing indignation, the LHA class (Landing Ship, Helicopter, Assault) is LARGER than any other countries existing Aircraft carriers other than France's Charles De Gaulle and the corresponding Indian navy carrier (Vikrant) based on that ship, and of course Russia's Tblisi (Ex Kusnetsov); the two Queen Elizabeth class Aircraft Carriers that Great Britain has JUST ordered will be larger (and are meant to be plug in replacements for US CVNs in NATO task forces) as will the French variant. Only the three QE/French variant ships and the Tblisi will be larger (or carry a larger combat load!) than the LHA-6 class.
In summary, the only ships that will be able to touch an America-Class LHA will be >US< CVNs; Tblisi is and has been barely operational, and the QE class carriers are only 20% larger. The America will be a fitting force projection platform, and IS an Aircraft Carrier; it'
Correction
I am glad to see that this article has been corrected. When this article was first posted, it inaccurately stated that the new "carrier" would be named America and be contracted out of Mississippi. I'm sure this would have come as a shock to the thousands of Northrop Grumman employees in Newport News who are working on the new carrier the Gerald Ford. It would be nice for the Pilot to acknowledge their misinformation.
This is a disgrace
This is a disgrace to all former "America" sailors. I served on the America and find it incredibly insulting that a amphib would carry the name of the greatest country on the earth.
I was scared for a minute there
I thought they would name it Clinton...
Hmmm
CVN's are the ultimate symbol of American military might and as such, the name AMERICA should not be relegated to an amphib or any other class of ship.