USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)

History of the USS The Good Man Richard (LHD-6)

The U.S. Navy's (USN) Wasp-class top-eight surface combatant for amphibious assault support missions. This involves deploying people and machines from shore to fight enemies on land and beyond. While the USS Wasp (LHD-1) is the capital ship of this class, the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) is one of her numbers.

The ship was ordered on December 11, 1992, and was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding for the U.S. Navy. Her keel was laid on 18 April 1995 and the ship was launched for testing on 14 March 1997.

The ship entered service on August 15, 1998 and is still in service at the time of writing (2020), based at Naval Station San Diego on the US West Coast.

The battle of the Good Man Richard (LHD-6) shows the motto "I haven't started fighting yet!". And also known by the identifiers "BHR" and "Bonnie Dick".

Wasp-class compliant USS Goodman Richard displaces nearly 41,000 tons at full load. She is 844 feet long, with a beam of 105 feet and a draught of up to 27 feet. Installed power includes a pair of boiler units feeding 2 x gear steam turbines producing 70,000 hp on 2 x shafts under the stern.

This propels the vessel to a range of 9,500 nautical miles at 22 knots.

There are 1,108 combatants on board, including a full contingent of nearly 1,900 combatants, including the Marines. The ship can carry vehicles and landing craft to bring the battle to the enemy for a short period of time.

For close air support, the flight deck can launch and recover multiple aircraft of different types. These include the Harrier fighter jet, the stealth-oriented F-35 Lightning II fighter jet and the Bell Super Cobra/Viper attack helicopter. In addition, the ship can provide support systems including CV-22 Osprey transport helicopters, Huey/Venom utility helicopters and Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopters.

All of these are vertical take-off and landing systems (VTOL) because the Good Man Richard is not a true aircraft carrier to support the fixed-wing fighter type.

The ship will also transport up to 3 Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCAC), 2 Landing Craft Utilities (LCU) and 12 Landing Craft Mechanization (LCM) ship-to-shore vehicles into combat primarily responsible for bringing people and machines to the beach.

This inherent versatility is at the heart of the U.S. Navy's LHD fleet.

The ship's sensor and processing suite includes the AN/SPS-49 2D air search radar, the AN/SPS-48 3D air search radar, and the AN/SPS-67 surface search radar. In addition, there are the Mk.23 Target Acquisition System (TAS), the AN/URN-25 TACAN series and the AN/UPX-24 IFF system.

Weapons for point defense, including 2 RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launchers and 2 RIM-7 Sea Sparrow Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) launchers. Close-range defense is provided by 2 x 20mm Phalanx digitally controlled close-in weapons systems (CIWS), 3 x 25mm Mk 38 chain guns and up to 4 x 12.7mm Browning air-cooled heavy machine guns (HMG). - The latter as the last line of defense.

The supply of warships is dominated by the fore and aft flight decks with several helipads. The hangar elevator provides access to the support deck below. The island superstructure is offset to starboard, which is completely unobstructed for incoming and outgoing aircraft. Communication and sensor equipment are located on superstructures nearby or on the island, as is air traffic control.

Sections of the hull were cut away along the sides of the ship to facilitate launching and hauling of the landing craft.

Specification

Base

Year of Service

1998

Origins

United States

Status

In service

supplement

3,275

staff

SHIPBUILDERS

Ingalls Shipbuilding - USA

Class information

Class

Wasps

Class Size

8

ships

Class

USS Wasp (LHD-1); USS Essex (LHD-2); USS Kearsarge (LHD-3); USS Boxer (LHD-4); USS Bataan (LHD-5); Good Man Richard (LHD-6); USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7); USS Makin Island (LHD-8)

Operators

United States

Rolling

Amphibious Assault

Shallow draft and other characteristics enable the ship to support nearshore amphibious assault operations.

Flagship/Capital Ship

Taking on the role of fleet flagship or capital ship in old battleship design/terminology.

Dimensions and Weight

Length

843.0ft

256.95m

Ray

104. 0 feet

31.70m

Draft

27. 0 feet

8.23m

Shift

41,150 t

Power and Performance

Installed Power:

2 x boiler units power 2 x geared steam turbines rated at 70,000 hp on 2 x shafts.

Surface Velocity

22. 0 nodes

(25.3 km/h)

Area

9,559nm

(11,000 miles | 17,703 kilometers)

Weapons

2 x RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Launchers. 2 x RIM-7 "Sparrow" medium-range rocket launchers (SAM). 2 x 25mm Mk 38 chain guns. 2 x 20mm Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS). 4 x 12.7mm Heavy Browning Machine Guns (HMG).

Aircraft

Various vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft supported by the flight deck, including AV-8B Harrier, F-35B Lightning II, AH-1 Super Cobra/Viper -Attack Helicopter, UH-1Y utility helicopter, SH-60 Seahawk helicopter and MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor.