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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books About the Ship's Coat of Arms Accidents aboard the Ship History Construction Gallery Image Gallery to end of page |  |  |
USS SAN ANTONIO is the lead ship in the Navy's new 12-ship LPD 17 Class which serves as the functional replacement of four amphibious ship classes - LPD 4, LSD 36, LST 1179 and LKA 113 - that have reached or are nearing the end of their service lives.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: December 1996 |
| Keel laid: December 9, 2000 | |
| Launched: July 12, 2003 | |
| Commissioned: January 14, 2006 | |
| Builder: Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Avondale, New Orleans, La. | |
| Propulsion system: four sequentially turbocharged marine Colt-Pielstick Diesels | |
| Propellers: two | |
| Length: 684 feet (208.5 meters) | |
| Beam: 105 feet (31.9 meters) | |
| Draft: 23 feet (7 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 24,900 tons | |
| Speed: 22 knots | |
| Well deck capacity: two LCAC or one LCU and 14 Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles | |
| Aircraft: landing platform for all helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey; maintenance facilities for one CH-53E or two CH-46s or one MV-22 or three UH/AH-1s | |
| Crew: Ship: 28 officers, 332 enlisted | |
| Marine Detachment: 66 officers, 633 enlisted (can be expanded to 800) | |
| Homeport: Norfolk, Va. | |
| Armament: two Bushmaster II 30 mm Close in Guns; two |
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageCrew List:
This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS SAN ANTONIO. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageUSS SAN ANTONIO Cruise Books:
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Ship's Coat of Arms:
The Shield:
The colors of the shield and star are adapted from the Texas state flag. The star also commemorates the “Lone Star” and first ship to bear the name San Antonio. Red is the color for valor and sacrifice, blue is for loyalty and white, purity of purpose. The Alamo honors the heroes who offered their lives to ensure the freedom of Texas. The bluebonnets refer to the beauty and majesty of Texas and the olive branch highlights the ship's peacekeeping mission.
The Crest:
The trident and cannon represent the old and new weaponry. The cannon balls and nineteenth century cannon were similar weapons used by the brave men that defended the Alamo. The trident, symbol of sea prowess, also represents the “mobility triad” that USS SAN ANTONIO is built for. The mission of the San Antonio class is to transport the U.S. Marine Corps “mobility triad” – that is, the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV), Air Cushioned Landing Craft (LCAC) and vertical flight aircraft including the MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft – to trouble spots around the world.
The crossed Navy and Marine Corps swords represent cooperation and teamwork of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.
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Accidents aboard USS SAN ANTONIO:
| Date | Where | Events |
|---|---|---|
| February 4, 2009 | Gulf of Aden | A sailor is lost after the rigid hull inflatable boat he was in turned over. Two other sailors who were also in the boat were rescued and not injured. The accident happened during a routine personnel transfer when the tending line on the front end of the small boat and its crane cable became hooked, causing the boat to flip over. The search for the missing sailor was called off 24 hours after the accident.
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back to top go to the end of the pageUSS SAN ANTONIO History:
USS SAN ANTONIO entered service as the lead ship of her class on January 14, 2006, following a protracted construction period at Avondale, Louisiana, and final preparations that brought her to Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, for commissioning. As the first-in-class replacement for the aging AUSTIN-class amphibious transports, she embodied the Navy-Marine Corps shift toward aviation-heavy, networked amphibious warfare: a flight deck sized for MV-22 and CH-53E operations, an advanced well deck for LCACs, and the distinctive enclosed masts that reduced topside clutter and radar signature. After post-commissioning trials and a demanding work-up year in 2006 that included Fleet Week calls at Fort Lauderdale and New York and a succession of certifications off the Virginia Capes, she shifted to the East Coast deployment cycle, homeported in Norfolk.
On August 2008, she sailed on her maiden deployment with the IWO JIMA (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group and elements of the 26TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT, crossing the Atlantic and entering the Mediterranean. On September 11, 2008, she made a high-visibility port visit to Naples. Later that month, she transited the Suez Canal en route to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid a surge in piracy that had drawn coalition attention to the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint. Two months into that cruise, the ship paused in Bahrain for corrective maintenance to lubricating-oil piping - a reminder of the teething problems that had shadowed the class - before resuming tasking. By early 2009, she was operating from the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea, with imagery placing her in the Gulf of Aden in January and at Kuwait Naval Base and the Gulf of Oman in February, prior to her return to Norfolk on March 27, 2009. The deployment's second half aligned with the formation of COMBINED TASK FORCE 151 for counter-piracy, and SAN ANTONIO served as the flagship during the early months of that multinational effort alongside ships such as USS MAHAN (DDG 72) and HMS PORTLAND (F 79), underscoring the utility of a large amphib as an afloat command platform.
The period from late 2009 through 2011 was dominated by inspections, repairs, and reliability improvements. Investigations into lube-oil contamination that had contributed to premature bearing wear led to extensive replacement of external service piping and heightened oil-quality management controls. By mid-2011, following a stretch of maintenance and overhaul work, SAN ANTONIO completed sea trials in May-June and was declared fit, only to uncover intercooler deficiencies that prompted additional repair work - much of it focused on rework of earlier contractor tasks. Those fixes were wrapped up by August 3, 2011, closing out a difficult chapter and returning the ship to the training cycle.
By spring 2012, with propulsion and auxiliary systems stabilized, the ship was back on station in the Gulf of Aden. On May 26, 2012, she transited the area to assume duties as command ship for COMBINED TASK FORCE 151 during another high-tempo counter-piracy period, providing a flight deck for embarked helicopters and a robust command-and-control suite for multinational staff work while coalition forces continued to compress pirate activity eastward from the Maritime Security Patrol Area. Later that year, as Hurricane Sandy struck the U.S. Northeast, SAN ANTONIO shifted to domestic defense support of civil authorities, positioning with USS WASP (LHD 1) and USS CARTER HALL (LSD 50) in New York Harbor in late October and early November to offer sea-based aviation, logistics, and berthing if called upon.
In 2013, she deployed with the KEARSARGE (LHD 3) Amphibious Ready Group and the 26TH MEU, working across the Sixth and Fifth Fleet theaters from March into November as regional unrest persisted from North Africa to the Levant. The ARG's itinerary blended presence, exercises, and contingency positioning: SAN ANTONIO supported the large, Jordan-hosted multinational exercise EAGER LION, with LCUs and AAVs shuttling Marines through the Gulf of Aqaba to Port of Aqaba in June, and took part in follow-on security cooperation events around the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The ship's schedule reflected the persistent requirement for amphibious readiness during the Syrian civil war's most volatile phase and the broader Arab Spring aftershocks.
In 2015, the ship shifted to Northern Europe for BALTOPS 2015, the alliance's premier Baltic maritime exercise. SAN ANTONIO embarked Marines from 1/6, conducted well-deck and flight-deck evolutions at sea en route in May, then entered Gdynia, Poland, on June 6 before getting underway for serials that included amphibious demonstrations off Sweden and Poland. The deployment underscored NATO's renewed emphasis on Baltic security following the 2014 annexation of Crimea. SAN ANTONIO's large flight deck and well deck made her well suited to host combined amphibious drills with European partners. The Secretary of the Navy's visit aboard in mid-June further highlighted the exercise's political signaling.
From summer into late 2016, SAN ANTONIO joined the WASP Amphibious Ready Group with the 22ND MEU for a deployment spanning the Mediterranean and Middle East. After entering the Sixth Fleet theater, the ship completed a ten-day mid-deployment availability in Bahrain on October 7, a routine "pit stop" that kept her fully mission capable. Two weeks later, on October 23, she relieved USS WASP off Libya and, for 43 days, launched AH-1W flights in support of Operation Odyssey Lightning - precision strikes flown to assist UN-backed Libyan government forces battling ISIS holdouts in Sirte. The relief-in-place on December 4 handed the mission back to WASP, and SAN ANTONIO resumed ARG duties, calling at Rota, Spain, on December 7 during the homeward transit. The operation demonstrated that an LPD's flight deck, fuel, and C2 capacity could sustain a modest but effective strike detachment, expanding the class's operational envelope beyond traditional lift.
From early 2017, the ship's life revolved around a deep maintenance and modernization cycle in Norfolk. On January 6, 2017, BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair received a contract to execute a Drydocking Phased Maintenance Availability for SAN ANTONIO, and contemporary photography shows the ship in BAE's dry dock on the Elizabeth River during that period. The multi-month availability kept her pier- and yard-bound through 2018 and into 2019 as work packages were opened and executed, with a change of command held at the yard on June 27, 2019 - an administrative milestone that doubled as a progress marker amid the overhaul.
The yard period culminated in a return to sea at the turn of 2020. After three years in a Chief of Naval Operations maintenance availability, the ship got underway for sea trials on February 29, 2020, the first time she had been at sea since February 2017. The trials phase validated hull, mechanical, and electrical work and refreshed core watchstanding teams ahead of basic phase training. By October 18, 2020, she was back in the Virginia Capes operating areas participating in Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training. During that evolution she launched a Rolling Airframe Missile as part of live-fire events that fold tactical proficiency checks into strike group workups. The arc from "back to sea" to "advanced training live fires" in the same calendar year highlights how the fleet compresses readiness ramps after major maintenance to meet tasking.
In 2021, the ship deployed with the IWO JIMA Amphibious Ready Group and the 24TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT. The group began operating in Sixth Fleet waters in mid-April. On April 12, 2021, SAN ANTONIO conducted a replenishment at sea with USNS SUPPLY (T-AOE 6) while maneuvering with USS CARTER HALL (LSD 50). On April 18, after several weeks at sea, she moored at HMNB Devonport, Plymouth, for a brief maintenance and logistics stop, then rejoined the ARG at sea for photo exercises and allied interoperability events through May. On May 27, she arrived at Souda Bay, Greece, again for sustainment - part of the Mediterranean's standard support lattice for forward amphibious ships. These port periods bracketed continuous operations, including maritime security cooperation with NATO partners amid the Levant's persistent instability.
In late summer 2021, the ARG shifted east, with SAN ANTONIO and flagship USS IWO JIMA transiting the Suez Canal on September 20 toward Fifth Fleet waters as the Navy repositioned forces at the close of major operations in Afghanistan and continued maritime security patrols in the Red Sea and Gulf regions. By late September, the group had begun the westbound leg, and SAN ANTONIO returned to Norfolk on October 8, 2021, closing a deployment that blended presence, exercises, and logistics in both the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
A new maintenance phase followed. On November 2, 2021, the Navy awarded a fiscal-year 2022 Selected Restricted Availability to Marine Hydraulics International in Norfolk, with planning indicating a start in February 2022. That SRA - a shorter, pier-side modernization and repair package - carried SAN ANTONIO through much of 2022, aligning upgrades and corrective maintenance with the class's mid-life sustainment path and returning the ship to the basic phase by early 2023.
Through 2023, the ship remained stateside, reconstituting crews, qualifications, and systems and carrying out community and namesake-city engagements that often accompany inter-deployment training periods. In late April, sailors from SAN ANTONIO took part in Fiesta events in the ship's namesake city, while the ship's operational work stayed focused on the Atlantic training ranges and Norfolk waterfront as planners mapped the road to the next ARG cycle.
The next readiness build began in earnest in early 2025 for a deployment with the IWO JIMA ARG and the 22ND MEU (SOC). After completing Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training - including a March 24 Rolling Airframe Missile firing - the ship executed PHIBRON/MEU Integration Training in April with LCAC on- and off-loads and non-combatant evacuation drills aboard, then moved into ARG/MEU Exercise in May, when she again conducted a replenishment at sea with USNS SUPPLY while the team refined logistics and flight deck rhythms. These linked events - SWATT, PMINT, and ARG/MEUEX - are the Navy-Marine Corps' standard ladder to certify an amphibious task group for forward operations.
On August 14, 2025, SAN ANTONIO departed Naval Station Norfolk with IWO JIMA and USS FORT LAUDERDALE (LPD 28) to begin a regularly scheduled deployment. Initial movements kept the group in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean under U.S. Southern Command, where amphibious units routinely support counter-narcotics and partner-nation training. By early September, the ARG had shifted into a visible presence posture around Puerto Rico. The ship's public affairs imagery shows LCAC operations during on-load and early underway periods, while media and local reporting documented exercises ashore with the National Guard in southern Puerto Rico. On October 4, 2025, SAN ANTONIO was photographed pier-side in Ponce, Puerto Rico, with other U.S. ships operating nearby, a port call that punctuated the opening phase of the cruise.
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS SAN ANTONIO Construction Gallery:
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back to top go to the end of the pageUSS SAN ANTONIO Image Gallery:
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The photos below were taken by me and show the SAN ANTONIO at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 29, 2010.
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The photos below were taken by me and show the SAN ANTONIO at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 6, 2012.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at the General Dynamics NASSCO-Earl Industries Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., during a Phased Maintenance Availability (PMA). The photos were taken on May 8, 2014.
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The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SAN ANTONIO at the General Dynamics NASSCO-Earl Industries Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., near the end of her Phased Maintenance Availability (PMA). The photos were taken on October 23, 2014.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on April 29, 2015.
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The photos below were taken by me and show the SAN ANTONIO arriving at Kiel, Germany, on June 19, 2015, after participating in BALTOPS 2015. It was SAN ANTONIO's first visit to Germany.
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The photos below were taken by me on June 19-21, 2015, during USS SAN ANTONIO's port visit to Kiel, Germany, after her participation in BALTOPS 2015.
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The photos below were taken by me and show the SAN ANTONIO departing Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on June 21, 2015, after a two-day port visit.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 6, 2015.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO drydocked at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair undergoing a Drydocking Phased Maintenance Availability (DPMA) on October 4, 2017.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on December 26, 2021.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at the Marine Hydraulics Industries (MHI) Ship Repair & Services shipyard in Norfolk, Va., on September 6, 2022.
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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SAN ANTONIO at the Marine Hydraulics Industries (MHI) Ship Repair & Services shipyard in Norfolk, Va., on October 9, 2023.
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