Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division christened amphibious transport dock Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the christening was livestreamed, and a small socially distanced event was held with limited in-person attendance. LPD 28 is named Fort Lauderdale to honor the Florida city’s historic ties to the U.S. Navy, which date back to the 1830s and include an important naval training center during World War II. The ship’s sponsor, Meredith Berger, christened the ship with a bottle of sparkling wine. Berger served as deputy chief of staff under former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, and currently serves as assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment.
Fort Lauderdale feature design improvements developed in connection with the Navy’s development of a next-generation dock landing ship, known as the LX(R)-class amphibious warfare ship. The LX(R) is intended to replace current Whidbey Island-class and Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships. Fort Lauderdale will incorporate a high temperature superconductor-based mine protection degaussing system built by American Superconductor to reduce the magnetic signature of the ship. The original ship concept included two 8-cell Mk 41 VLS in the bow, 2 × 30 mm Bushmaster II cannon for surface threat defense and 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for air defense.
“Shipbuilding is about teamwork and bringing together the most intellectually and physically challenging efforts we can imagine for a common purpose.We each leverage our essential and unique abilities to estimate, engineer, plan, procure, fit, weld, install, test and ultimately deliver a ship that is so much more than just a product. I consider everyone here today and watching from other places to be a part of that resilient and resolute team. We are now, together, a part of the legacy of the future USS Fort Lauderdale,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said.
Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII’s Technical Solutions division provides mission-critical national security solutions to government and commercial customers worldwide. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs about 44,000 people operating both domestically and internationally.
