The US Navy’s future San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, USS Richard M. McCool Jr, wrapped up its builders’ sea trials a week ago.
According to a press release issued by Huntington Ingalls Industries, the ship completed its trials in the Gulf of Mexico, where all of the ship’s systems were tested. The vessel is expected to be delivered to the US Navy this spring.
The future USS Richard M. McCool Jr (LPD 29) is a transition ship to the first Flight II vessel Harrisburg (LPD 30). These ships are planned to replace the US Navy’s current fleet of aging Whidbey Island-class and Harpers Ferry-class ships under the LX(R) program.
AN/SPY-6(V)2 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar
LPD 29 and the Flight II ships will be equipped with Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6(V)2 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar. This new radar is set to replace the AN/SPS-48G radar on prior vessels. The (V)2 is the smallest version of the AN/SPY-6 family of radars and is currently set to be fielded on the Navy’s amphibious ships such as the San Antonio class LPDs, Wasp class LHDs, America class LHAs, and Nimitz class carriers.
The V(2), which can be seen above, is dubbed the “rotator variant” of the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radars (EASR). It is composed of nine Radar Module Assemblies (RMAs) mounted on a rotating structure. The V(3) is the fixed-face version of the EASR, which as the name implies, will be composed of three fixed-faces each composed of nine RMAs. The V(3) variants will be fielded with the Navy’s Gerald R. Ford class carriers and Constellation class frigates.
Furthermore, the new Flight II ships will not feature the enclosed masts that have been a prominent feature of the Flight I San Antonios. In place of these enclosed masts, the new ships will be switching to a more conventional tripod mast. Which can be seen in the image above.
The tripod mast will likely increase the ship’s signature, however, the Arleigh Burke class destroyer also uses a similar mast while having some radar cross section reduction over prior classes.
Alongside the new AN/SPY-6(V)2 radar, the ships will feature Lockheed Martin’s AN/SLQ-32(V)6. Which was first fielded on the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28). The system brings increased sensitivity and better soft-kill coordination software over the prior AN/SLQ-32 equipped on earlier Flight I ships.
