Introduce New US Navy ship : USS New York (LPD-21) (part 1)

    

      USS New York (LPD-21), the fifth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named after the state of New York. The New York has a crew of 360, and can also carry up to 700 Marines. The ship is notable for using steel that was salvaged from the World Trade Center, after it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

      The ship is the first to be designed fully from the CAD-screen up to support all three of the Marines' primary mobility capabilities — the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), Landing Craft Air Cushion and MV-22B Osprey.

      Shortly after 11 September 2001, Governor of New York George E. Pataki wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England requesting that the Navy bestow the name USS New York on a surface warship involved in the War on Terrorism in honor of September 11's victims.

       The contract to build the New York was awarded to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2003. The New York was under construction in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005

World Trade Center steel

      7.5 short tons (6.8 t) of the steel used in the ship's construction came from the rubble of the World Trade Center; this represents less than one thousandth of the total weight of the ship. The steel was melted down at Amite Foundry and Machine in Amite, Louisiana, to cast the ship's bow section. It was poured into the molds on 9 September 2003, with 7 short tons (6.4 t) cast to form the ship's "stem bar" — part of the ship's bow.  The shipyard workers reportedly treated it with "reverence usually accorded to religious relics", gently touching it as they walked by. One worker delayed his retirement after 40 years' work to be part of the project.

 

Aircraft

      At the stern of the ship the landing deck is able to accommodate two Sikorsky CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters, six Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, four Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two Boeing Bell MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

      The hangar deck provides aviation maintenance facilities and is sufficiently large to accommodate one Sea Stallion, two Sea Knight, three Super Cobra helicopters or one MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The hangar doors are constructed by Indal Technologies. Each blast-resistant door weighs 18,000kg and has three horizontal folding panels.

       USS San Antonio began flight operations testing with the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor and CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter in June 2006.