USS Bougainville (LHA-8)

The design of Bougainville is based on USS Makin Island, itself an improved version of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship. While Makin Island has a well deck, the earlier two Flight 0 America-class ships USS America and USS Tripoli were designed and built without a well deck to make space for aircraft and aviation fuel.[10] Bougainville will be the first Flight 1 America-class ship,[1] and as such will include a well deck.[2] The design of the Flight 1 America-class ships, including that of Bougainville, adopts a compromise, incorporating a slightly smaller aircraft hangar as well as smaller medical and other spaces to fit a small well deck for surface connector operations.[2][11] The island structure will also be modified to free up more room on the flight deck to accommodate maintenance of V-22s, compensating for some of the lost aircraft hangar space.[11]

Bougainville will be the first in her class built with a redesigned and stronger main deck; the earlier America-class vessels America and Tripoli each required retrofitting in order to handle the strain of daily Marine F-35B Lightning II STOVL operations.[12] In addition, Bougainville will incorporate the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) volume air search radar in lieu of the AN/SPS-48G air search radar in America and Tripoli.[5] The Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers starting with John F. Kennedy and the planned LX(R)-class amphibious warfare ships will also have this radar.[13]

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

• Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding: America-class of Amphibious Assault Ships