If you happened along PCH recently, you might have noticed a rather unusual appearing ship berthed at Navel Weapons Station Seal Beach. That would be the New Orleans. “Whenever she’s in port, I get lots of calls asking what ship it is,” Gregg Smith, base spokesperson told OC180NEWS. “I’ve worked here since 1998, and she’s the first ship people from the community have asked about.”

USS New Orleans (LPD-18), is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, and is designed to be able to deliver a fully-equipped battalion of 700 Marines.
According to the ship’s web site, on September 3, 2010, she returned to her home port of “San Diego after a three-month independent deployment in support of Amphibious-Southern Partnership Station 2010. A-SPS is an amphibious portion of Southern Partnership Station, which is a deployment of various specialty platforms to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The silhouette of the ship is unusual because it is designed to minimize its radar image. “The ship is designed for stealth – the two encapsulated towers help make the ship appear smaller on radar than it actually is,” said Smith. The ship also has a distinctive large flat bay deck in the aft section for landing craft.

The ship’s armaments are for air and surface defense and the gun turrets also add to the unusual appearance. “It has two turret mounted 30 millimeter cannons for surface threat defense – fore and aft – but the ship is rather large {684 feet long} and the guns look small by comparison,” said Smith.