US Navy’s First Flight II Amphibious Ship Harrisburg Completes Sea Trials

The future USS Harrisburg (LPD 30), the first Flight II ship in the San Antonio-class of amphibious transport docks, has completed builder’s sea trials at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding yard. The trials took place in late October, sailing out of the Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard.

Shipyard engineers ran the vessel through a full suite of tests covering propulsion, steering and ship-control systems, communications, and the integration of mission and combat systems. Harrisburg returned to the yard after meeting its major test objectives.

The ship will now move into acceptance trials, the final step before formal delivery to the Navy. The Navy’s April budget documents had projected an April 2027 delivery, but HII’s current expectation is that handover will take place within 2026.

The Flight II design improves on earlier San Antonio-class ships with upgraded aviation facilities and a larger well deck, enabling it to support newer-generation helicopters as well as LCAC-100-class air-cushion landing craft.

Harrisburg is being built as the 14th ship in the San Antonio class, which continues to replace the Navy’s aging Whidbey Island and Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships. Sister ships Pittsburgh (LPD 31) and Philadelphia (LPD 32) remain under construction at the same yard.

The Navy and Marine Corps have for years flagged a shortfall in the amphibious fleet’s size; analyses presented to Congress argue the fleet needs at least 31 amphibious ships to meet mission requirements. The entry into service of new Flight II ships like Harrisburg is viewed as a limited but concrete step toward closing that gap.

The program’s unit cost has risen compared with earlier San Antonio-class ships; Marine Corps officials attribute the increase to the vessel’s expanded aviation and landing-craft capacity. During acceptance trials, all of the ship’s subsystems will be re-tested by independent inspectors, a stage that serves as the final checkpoint before setting the official delivery date.

Huntington Ingalls Industries runs multiple amphibious ship programs simultaneously at its Pascagoula yard, reinforcing the facility’s central role in U.S. amphibious shipbuilding capacity. Harrisburg’s successful trials are being viewed as a positive reference point for the schedules of its sister ships under construction at the same yard.

The ship is named for Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, following the Navy’s naming convention under which San Antonio-class ships generally carry the names of American cities. With a full-load displacement above 25,000 tons, the ship is built to carry roughly 800 Marines along with their vehicles and equipment.

Within the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Ready Group concept, LPD-class ships serve as a bridge between large helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships and dock landing ships. Harrisburg’s entry into service is expected to increase the number of amphibious ready groups the Navy can sustain simultaneously, a factor viewed as directly affecting the fleet’s global crisis-response capacity.

Sources

• USNI News — “First Flight II San Antonio-class Amphib Completes Builder’s Trials” (November 2026). Read source — Trial scope and results
• Baird Maritime — “Builder’s sea trials completed for US Navy amphibious ship Harrisburg” (November 2026). Read source — Delivery schedule and program details