USS Tripoli Quietly Leaves on Maiden Deployment

U.S. Naval Institute ^ | May 2, 2022 | Sam LaGrone and Gidget Fuentes

[Retain Mike]

“We refer to the ship as ‘assault carrier 7.’ And assault is traditional for an LHD, LHA,” Capt. Joel Lang, the ship’s commander, said during an April 3 media event aboard Tripoli. “We have the space for a battalion landing team, we have about 1,000 infantrymen. And typically the air combat element is a blend of rotary and tilt-rotor in order to enable that assault force to go ashore. What we’re doing right now is lightning carrier, and we are proving the operational concept. … We are proving the tactics and the techniques and the procedures to employ the lightning carrier concept.”

[Retain Mike]

Here is an article about USS Tripoli as it begins its first deployment with F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. I guessed this ship would be similar to WW II carriers and it is. When commissioned eight days after the end of World War II, Midway, at 45,000 tons, was the same weight as the Tripoli, but 160 feet longer. This ship is a light carrier, but the Midway was the largest carrier afloat until 1955.

USS Tripoli (LHA-7)

https://www.bing.com/search?q=uss+tripoli&form=ANNTH1&refig=c87b8c2e3b30487aae98731bed316b8f

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Midway_(CV-41)

[rlmorel]

This was a video done by a conservative pundit who I greatly admire, Bill Whittle on this subject:

The Lightning Carrier: American Greatness Captured in One Badass Power Platform

He is a conservative, and also an accomplished pilot with a lot of experience...very enjoyable to watch.

[ought-six]

Looks like it is some 200 feet longer than the light fleet carriers of WWII.

[ought-six]

She is an America-class ship. According to the internet 11 are planned, of which 2 have been built (I assume those would be the USS America and the USS Tripoli), one is under construction.

Let’s hope the Dems don’t cancel the program.

[Dan in Wichita]

From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...

[Alas Babylon!]

Frankly, I worry that recent events in the Ukraine invasion have made tanks, armor and big ships targets for drones and single man weapons.

Our biggest push ought to be autonomous laser batteries on every big ship to ward off waves of drones and missiles.

[ought-six]

“Our biggest push ought to be autonomous laser batteries on every big ship to ward off waves of drones and missiles.”

I think we just recently tested something like that.

[Mariner]

20 of the F-35s is formidable.

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/04/us-navy-and-usmc-demonstrate-lightning-carrier-concept/

[Tell It Right]

Why in the world did we name a ship after Tripoli? Is our next ship going to be the USS Japan?

[Retain Mike]

I managed to mess up my math. Midway was 127 feet longer than the Tripoli when it was first commissioned. the Essex class carriers were about 20 feet shorter. The pilots who flew from WW II light carriers were fond of saying “which runway do you want me to use’ when landing on one of the CV’s.

[Retain Mike]

Thanks.

[Dan in Wichita]

In the early 1800's, President Thomas Jefferson sent the Navy and the Marines to vanquish the Tripoli pirates, who had been terrorizing the Mediterranean and forcing shippers to pay "tribute" (i.e. extortion money).

The Americans were also paying tribute for a while, but when Jefferson announced we were no longer paying extortion money, the pirates sacked the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. It wasn't easy, but the Navy and Marines wiped them out and forever rid the world of that scourge. This victory is immortalized in the Marine Corp hymn... "to the shores of Tripoli".

Having a mighty Navy ship named after the victory at Tripoli is indeed appropriate and worthy.

[DesertRhino]

Not fleet carriers. You might be referring to escort carriers. It is roughly the same length as an Essex Carrier.

[PIF]

[rlmorel]

The reference to Tripoli in the Marine Corps Hymn, was an effort led by the USA, was one of the first major pushbacks on Islamic slavers in the late 18th and early 19th century to throw off the yoke of tribute.

Even the British, who were in the forefront of eradicating the slave trade to the New World, at the time were paying tribute to the Barbary Pirates (muslims) instead of fighting them. For the USA the tribute money was coming to 10-20% of the entire US budget at the time.

That is where the "Shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Corps Hymn came from.

It is also where the slogan "Millions for defense, but not a damned penny for tribute." came from.

[allendale]

Your point is well taken. Stealth missiles, drones, multiple modalities of positioning and targeting has changed everything. Much faith is being placed on defensive weaponry such as lasers that have never been tested in actual combat. Have serious doubts about the wisdom of constructing and deploying with full crews these huge surface combatants.

[rightwingcrazy]

I’m pleasantly surprised that they didn’t stick an embarrassing politically-correct name on it.

[rellic]

“The Lightning Carrier: American Greatness Captured in One Badass Power Platform”
Video’s last two - three minutes is probably the most powerful comment made about our military today.
Wokeism and climate change will destroy our military,
If it has not already done so.

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[Tell It Right]

I'm familiar with the history, the Barbary Wars, Stephen Decatur, William Eaton, etc.

I just can't think of a time when we named a ship after an old enemy. For example, our first USS Enterprise was the captured HMS George during the American Revolution. Obviously we didn't want to sail on a ship named after our most hated enemy (at the time) so we named it the same thing France (Le Enterprize) and England (HMS Enterprise) had named some of their ships as our way of saying we've arrived as a naval power.

Plus, the Enterprise name was our way of telling England that we can capture enemy ships too -- because the first British ship named HMS Enterprise was the the one captured from the French. So we obviously had a reason to go with the name Enterprise in the late 18th century (this was before 1799 Enterprise's many glories during the Barbary Wars in the 19th century, and way before the very storied WW2 Enterprise aircraft carrier in the 20th century).

Back to building a ship and naming it Tripoli. What next? Are the British so proud of their role in beating Germany in WW2 that they're going to name their next ship the HMS Nazi? Maybe we ought to name our next ship the USS Alqaeda. That's what naming a ship after our first foreign enemy seems like to me.