took most of eight years to bring her into the fleet.
Top deck view of the USS Wasp (LHD-1). JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER As you exit the island onto the flight deck, there is the feeling of leaving a huge cave and breaking into daylight and fresh air. Covered with a non-skid coating and dotted with aircraft tie-down points, the flight deck is the LHD's primary reason for existence. At 844 ft/257.25 m long and 107 ft/32.6 m wide, it defines the ship's largest dimensions. It is also the most dangerous place on the ship. You have probably seen film footage of flight operations on a big-decked supercarrier. It is a hot, noisy, hazardous place to work, filled with things that can kill you. Jets and helicopters loaded with fuel, weapons, and men race around the deck like crazed banshees. Well, the deck of the Wasp is all of that and much more. For one thing, it is smaller (about one third the size), and most of the weapons aboard the aircraft are armed Marines, loaded with gear that can get loose and be sucked into a turbine engine. Though they make for some difficulties, those Marines are the reason why Wasp and her sisters were built.
A CH-46E and CH-53E of HMM-264 sit folded on the port elevator of the USS Wasp (LHD-1) in the summer of 1995. The ship is equipped with two such elevators. JOHN D. GRESHAM 
The massive island structure of the USS Wasp (LHD-1). Located on the starboard side of the main deck, it is packed with weapons, electronics, and other equipment vital to the operations of the ship. JOHN D. GRESHAM The deck of the Wasp has nine takeoff and landing spots for helicopters. Each spot is numbered, running from starboard to port, front to rear. Thus, the starboard spot farthest forward is Spot 1, while the port spot farthest aft is Spot 9. Usually, Spots 1, 3, and 8 (along the starboard side) are parking areas for AH-1W Cobra and UH-1N Iroquois helicopters forward, and AV-8B Harrier IIs aft. This arrangement maximizes the use of the limited space in the hangar, and still leaves a large area for launch and recovery of aircraft up on the roof. As on the big supercarriers, the deck crews wear colored jerseys to designate their tasks. Red for fuel and ordnance, yellow for spotters, etc. These people operate in a world where noise is an enemy, and virtually all signals are by hand. They move and service $50-million aircraft with little more than gestures and nods for communication. When you consider that these sailors are about twenty years old (are you happy when a kid that age parks your car?), you can appreciate their burden of responsibility. Accidents do happen, and safety nets ring the perimeter of the flight deck. If a deck-hand should fall or be blown overboard (by wind or jet exhaust), he (hopefully) falls into a net before dropping sixty ft/twenty m or more to the sea. Around the perimeter are points for refueling, rearming, and servicing aircraft.
The deck level is the best place to observe Wasp's weapons. Though the LHAs were a model for the LHDs, the armament of the Wasp shows how far 1990s technology has gone beyond the 1960s and 1970s. The LHA's armament provided a rudimentary defense against aircraft and limited capability against surface and shore targets. The designers of the LHDs dispensed with inshore bombardment, focusing instead on air and missile threats. The LHD design deletes the 5-in./127mm guns and the manned 20mm mounts. Instead, modern eight-cell RIM-7 Sea Sparrow launchers are fitted. The Sea Sparrow is a surface-launched version of the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile (AAM). Unlike the aerial version, Sea Sparrow has racked up an impressive record of reliability in three decades as a short range SAM ('point defense' the Navy calls it). The current version, the RIM-7M, has a range of around 10 nm/18.5 km, providing an inner layer of defense against incoming anti-ship missiles and aircraft. Like the airborne version of Sparrow, the RIM-7 utilizes semi-active radar guidance, which means that a radar on the ship 'paints' the target, and the missile homes on the reflected microwave energy. The 450-lb/204-kg missile has a lethal 90-lb/40.8-kg warhead. Sea Sparrow is found on everything from aircraft carriers to frigates and supply ships, and has been widely exported to NATO and 'friendly' countries. Wasp carries two eight-cell launchers (each with eight reloads) and a pair of Mk 91 illumination radars. One launcher sits at the front of the island structure, and the other is mounted on a sponson on the fantail.
In addition to the Sea Sparrow launchers, three Mk 16 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) are installed to deal with any missiles that 'leak' through the area SAM defense of escorting destroyers and cruisers, or the point-defense systems. One unit is located at the front of the island structure, and the other two are mounted on either side of the Sea Sparrow launcher on the fantail sponson. Each CIWS is built around a 20mm General Electric Gatling gun like the M61 on the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. CIWS fires 3,000 rounds per minute in 200-round bursts, with tungsten penetrators designed to break up an incoming missile, or detonate its warhead. Each CIWS has a 1,550-round magazine, and carries its own search and track radars. It is a self-contained unit; once turned on, it automatically attacks any fast-moving target it identifies as hostile. It can hit targets up to 6,000 yards/5,488 meters away, but is most effective within about 1,625 yards/1,486 meters. When conducting flight operations, Wasp tends to keep her three CIWS turned off, in case they accidentally identify a 'friendly' aircraft as 'hostile.' Electronic Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems still are not terribly reliable, and both sailors and aircrews take such things quite seriously. Several years ago, a RIM-7, fired accidentally by an American aircraft carrier, hit a Turkish destroyer on maneuvers, killing her captain and several crewmen.
While CIWS can defeat small anti-ship missiles like the French MM-38/ AM-39/MM-40 Exocet or the American A/RGM-84 Harpoon, it has trouble with large, fast sea-skimmers like the Russian SS-N-22 Sunburn with its 1,100-lb/500 kg warhead and Mach 2 speed (the subsonic Harpoon and Exocet have 250-to-500- 1b/125-to-225 -kg warheads). Even if CIWS detonates the incoming missile's warhead, it is moving so fast that missile fragments will 'pepper' the ship. This is one reason why the structure of Wasp and all new U.S. Navy ships have been hardened with lightweight Kevlar armor panels. A new system called the RIM-116A Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) will augment CIWS. This little missile combines the AIM-9 Sidewinder airframe with the FIM-92 Stinger seeker head. It can intercept targets out to 5 nm/9 km, far enough to avoid 'fragging' the ship with high-velocity wreckage. RAM is fired by a twenty-four-round Ex-31 lightweight launcher. Wasp will get two Ex-31 RAM launchers when she comes in for her first major overhaul; new units will get them starting with Bataan (I HD-5). Eight M2 .50-cal. machine-gun mounts provide defense against small boats and frogmen. New units (and ships completing their first overhaul) will replace four machine guns with three 25mm Bushmaster cannon. An SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo-decoy system is mounted in the LHD's stern. Towed behind the ship, these acoustic/magnetic decoys (hopefully) decoy any incoming torpedo. Active 'anti-torpedo torpedo' systems for installation on major warships may be ready in a few years.
The most noticeable difference between the LHAs and the LHDs is the smaller 'island' structure on the newer vessels. The LHA island held all the control spaces for fighting and running the ship plus all of the planning and command spaces for the embarked Marines. This kept everything centrally located, but was very vulnerable to a single missile or bomb hit. Anti-ship-missile seeker heads usually 'lock' onto the largest or hottest structures of a ship (the island with its boiler uptakes is perfect). Thus, on the LHD design, the massive island structure was cut down by two full decks and the Marine command spaces relocated below, deep within the ship. In addition to the weapons mounted on the island, most of the ship's sensors and communications antennas are mounted as high as possible. These include:
• SPS-48E-A 3-D search radar which provides air control and AAW battle management functions for the Wasp. This high-resolution radar has a reported range out to around 60 nm/110 km.
• SPS-49 (V)5—The best naval 2-D air-search radar of our time. Very reliable with a detection range of up to several hundred miles/kilometers, it is found on most major combatants in the U.S. Navy, as well as many foreign vessels.
• SPS-64 (V)9—This is primary a navigation radar for keeping formation and operating
