Navy marks start on 2nd warship memorializing 9/11

General Characteristics, San Antonio class

Builder: Northrop Grumman Ships Systems, with Raytheon Systems Corporation and Intergraph Corporation.
Propulsion: Four sequentially turbocharged marine Colt-Pielstick Diesels, two shafts, 41,600 shaft horsepower.
Length: 684 feet (208.5 meters).
Beam: 105 feet (31.9 meters).
Displacement: Approximately 24,900 long tons (25,300 metric tons) full load.
Speed: In excess of 22 knots (24.2 mph, 38.7 kph).
Crew: Ship's Company: 360 Sailors (28 officers, 332 enlisted) and 3 Marines.
Embarked Landing Force: 699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge capacity to 800.
Armament: Two Bushmaster II 30 mm Close in Guns, fore and aft; two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, fore and aft: ten .50 calibre machine guns.
Aircraft: Launch or land two CH53E Super Stallion helicopters or two MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft or up to four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, AH-1 or UH-1 helicopters.
Landing/Attack Craft: Two LCACs or one LCU; and 14 Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles/Amphibious Assault Vehicles.
Ships: USS San Antonio (LPD 17), Norfolk, VA
USS New Orleans (LPD 18), San Diego, CA
USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19), Norfolk, VA
USS Green Bay (LPD 20), San Diego, CA
USS New York (LPD 21), Norfok, VA
San Diego (LPD 22), under construction
Anchorage (LPD 23), under construction
Arlington (LPD 24), under construction
Somerset (LPD 25), under construction

Anybody know if the “USNS Somerset” was ordered under a different name? It’s not uncommon for ships to change names between the time they are ordered & the time that they are actually delivered to the Navy (commissioning). The lead-ship of the class — USS San Antonio — indicates an intention to name the ships after major cities. Naming this particular ship after a rural county seems a significant departure from that pattern. I’m not criticizing; just curious.

LPD ping

Considering the keel was constructed with steel from the twin towers I think it was always intended to be named Somerset. It is a place name though like the Arlington and New York.

BTW: the next carrier might very well be named Enterprise instead of after a US president. Personally I want it to be called the Lexington.

Considering the keel was constructed with steel from the twin towers I think it was always intended to be named Somerset. It is a place name though like the Arlington and New York.

BTW: the next carrier might very well be named Enterprise instead of after a US president. Personally I want it to be called the Lexington.

I believe it is named after Somerset County, PA, where FLT 93 crashed, in keeping with the New York and Arlington. Smooth sailing, Somerset.

I guess they could call it the Jonestown or the Altoona, but that doesn’t sound as good.

The lead-ship of the class — USS San Antonio — indicates an intention to name the ships after major cities. Naming this particular ship after a rural county seems a significant departure from that pattern.

The Navy's ship naming is so screwed up these days any ship of any class can be named for anything-it doesn't matter. Look at USS Mesa Verde of this class. Everything I'm reading says it named after Mesa Verde Nation Park. WTF?

Considering the keel was constructed with steel from the twin towers I think it was always intended to be named Somerset. It is a place name though like the Arlington and New York.

I guess that I didn't make my point clearly enough. It used to be that you could pretty much glean from a ship's name what type of vessel it was. Carriers were named after major battles or famous ships (Coral Sea, Yorktown, Enterprise); Battleships (now Boomers) after states; Heavy Cruisers after major cities; light cruisers after smaller cities; and Dock Landing Ships (LSD) were sometimes named after counties.

These modern amphibs have names that are all over the place. Major cities, midsize cities, national parks & rural counties. I had thought that the reason for that might be that the San Antonio-class was being built before 9/11 and that some of the ship names could have been changed after they were ordered. If you go back & review the fleet carrier & light carrier names during WW2, you will see that some of them had their names changed twice before they were launched... for example, when the Yorktown (CV-5) was sunk at Midway, the Navy changed the name of one of the new Essex-class carriers then building to Yorktown. The original name was then transfered to another of the carriers, thus causing a second name-change.

Therefore, I was wondering if the events of 9/11 might have caused the Navy to re-name one of it's LSD's then on order to "Somerset" from something else (like a city somewhere between New Orleans and San Antonio). You can tell much from it's sistership's name, New York, because that name falls within the original possibilies. But like "Gator Navy" says, the Navy's ship naming scheme is hopelessly broken, so you really can't tell anything from a ship's name today.

The fact that they may have melted some Twin Tower steel in the fabrication of the ship's keel is only tangential my point.

BTW: the next carrier might very well be named Enterprise instead of after a US president. Personally I want it to be called the Lexington.

After three consecutive Republican carriers I'm betting the next one is named after a Democrat, probably FDR or JFK. All as a lead in to the USS William Clinton and the USS Barack Obama.