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WASP CLASS AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT MODEL
The Wasp class is a
class of landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious
assault ships. The Wasp class is
is designed to act as a mobile base
for a U.S. Marine Corps air-ground team,
capable of
transporting almost the full strength of a United
States Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU),
and landing them in hostile territory via landing
craft or
MV-22 Osprey, CH-53E heavy lift helicopters, AH-1Z attack
helicopters, and F-35Bs
as well as providing
air support via AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft or
F-35B Lightning II stealth strike-fighters. The lead
ship, USS Wasp, was commissioned on 29 July 1989. A
total of eight Wasp-class ships were built.
On 12 July 2020, the
sixth ship of the Wasp class-- the USS
Bonhomme Richard
caught a fire while undergoing maintenance at Naval
Base San Diego.
Since the ship was in
maintenance, on-board fire-suppression systems had
been disabled, delaying the onset of firefighting
efforts. The fire was reported to have started in an
area that is normally used to park military trucks
while the ship is at sea.
It took four days for
firefighters to extinguish the fire, which injured
at least 63 sailors and civilians.
Navy leaders decided
to decommission and scrap
LHD-6
because repairs were estimated to take up to seven
years and cost up to $3.2 billion. The better option
was to salvage parts of the ship and stored for use
in other ships.
The loss
of USS Bonhomme Richard deals a significant blow to the
Navy’s plans to have F-35Bs continually deployed in the
Pacific.
Bonhomme Richard had been in the overhaul
for two years getting upgrades to operate F-35Bs. She
was a central cog in the US's Pacific operational
deployment plan for the next eight to 10 years.
Currently, only half of America's 10
amphibious assault ships are able to carry F-35B and the
Marines are looking to reduce their land-based
squadrons. So the loss of USS Bonhomme Richard will
impact the Navy’s ability to provide Combatant
Commanders sea-based F-35s not subject to host-nation
approval.
The
service needs enough ships to support one forward on
deployment, one in an elevated status of readiness to
surge in an emergency, one in maintenance and one in
pre-deployment workups. In other words, in an ideal
world the Navy would have at least four ships to have
one of them always on deployment. But with longer
overhauls, such as the F-35B upgrades, it might require
five ships to make on forward.
In memory of the
USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6, ModelShipMaster.com builts a scale model of her carrying the F-35Bs and
also the Navy's newest aerial drone tanker.
The
primarily wood scratch-built model
is
29" long
x 11" tall x 7" wide
(not including base's length) $3,390
Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $300 flat rate. This model is in stock and
can be shipped in three business days.
The model includes
AV-8B Harrier II,
F-35B Lightning II,
AH-1Z Viper, MH-60S Knighthawk, UH-1Y
Venom, MV-22B Osprey, CH-53K King Stallion, and
MQ-25 Stingray drone tanker. Compare this model to
the others on the Internet and you'll see it is free
of many gross errors on important parts of the
ships.
50" long (1/200 scale) $5,270
Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $500 flat rate.
For other sizes, email us for a quote. ModelShipMaster.com
is the only one who can build massive models, as much as
the door of a full size truck can accommodate. Click here to
learn more:
very large ships.
Don't be fooled by some
model makers out there who freely claim their models
"museum grade." Their
ships are wrong on many counts. The huls are horrible.
Some parts are oversized yet other undersized. Plenty
are wrong; many are missing. Go here to learn more: premium warship models.
Learn more about the Wasp class here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp-class_amphibious_assault_ship
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