Extra space on the America enhances flight ops: The Navy's newest amphibious assault ship, America, has some of the fleet's most advanced command and control capabilities and electronic warfare technology, but one low-tech asset has won over sailors and Marines who have been underway: space
Compared with earlier big-deck amphibs, the America has more room throughout its aviation spaces. This allows the ship to generate sorties farther from shore, maintainers to turn wrenches longer and fix aircraft faster than before, hangars to accommodate larger aircraft, and the ship to stay at sea longer before it has to resupply.
But it comes at a cost.
Unlike most of its predecessors, the America was built without a well deck and the capability to carry Marines and their heavy equipment ashore via surface craft. The Navy and Corps have deployed amphibious ships without well decks before, but the last, the Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship Inchon, was decommissioned in 2002. Unlike the America, the Iwo Jima-class ships were designed to carry helicopters instead of an air combat element comprised of jump jets, tilt-rotors and rotary wing aircraft.
Marines on the America said the lack of a well-deck means that there isn't a way to get ashore when flight operations aren't possible, and aircraft weight limits limit their ability to to move the heaviest gear.
