U.S.S. Tarawa
LHA-1
1991
(Argos AS-69)
- Class: Tarawa - 5 amphibious assault ships of 1969-71
- Displacement: 25,120 tons
- Dimensions: 777'8"(wl) 833'9" (oa) x 106' x 26'
- Machinery: 2 steam turbines; 70,000 shp; 2 shafts = 24 knots
- Missiles: 2 8-cell Sea Sparrow BPDMS launchers Mk 25
- Guns: 2 5"/54 DP Mk 45; 2 20mm Phalanx CIWS Mk 16; 6 20mm Mk 67
- Aircraft: 30 CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters + 6 AV-8B Harrier STOVL; or 20 AV-8B Harrier STOVL + 6 SH-60B/F ASW helicopters
- Complement: 940
- Troops: 1,900+
- Landing craft: 4 LCU 1610 or 7 LCM(8) or 17 LCM(6) or 45 AAV/LVTP-7 but only 1 LCAC because of arrangement of docking well.
- Builder: Litton/Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
- Keel Laid: 15 Nov 1971
- Launched: 1 Dec 1973
- Commissioned: 29 May 1976
- Deommissioned: 31 May 2009
- Notes: Made five deployemnts to Pacific and Indian Oceans from 1979 to 1989. In Dec 1990, Tarawa was the flagship of a 13-ship amphibious task force in support of Operation Desert Shield. She participated in the Sea Soldier IV landing exercise in Jan 1991, which was a deception maneuver suggesting an amphibious assault in Kuwait, and then on 24 Feb landed Marines in Saudi Arabia just south of the Kuwaiti border. More deployments from 1992 on to the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and thr Persian Gulf until decommissioning in 2009. Maintained in Category B Reserve until 2024, when she was sunk off the coast of Hawaii during a live fire exercise during RIMPAC 2024.
- CH-46E Sea Knight
- AH-1W Super Cobra
- CH-53E Sea Stallion
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