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USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26)

US Navy photo courtesy of Huntington Ingalls.

USS JOHN P. MURTHA is the tenth SAN ANTONIO - class amphibious transport dock and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: April 1, 2011
	Keel laid: June 6, 2012
	Launched: October 30, 2014
	Commissioned: October 8, 2016
	Builder: Northrop Grumman Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss.
	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
	Crew: Marine Detachment: 66 officers, 633 enlisted (can be expanded to 800)
	Homeport: San Diego, Calif.
	Armament: two Bushmaster II 30 mm Close in Guns; two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS JOHN P. MURTHA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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Click here to see which USS JOHN P. MURTHA memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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About the Ship's Name:

The ship is named in honor of John P. Murtha, who served his country both as a Marine and in the halls of congress. Murtha served in the Marine Corps for 37 years and saw service in the Korean War and in Vietnam, a tour that earned him the Bronze Star with Valor device, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. Murtha represented Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District from 1974 until his death in 2010.

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USS JOHN P. MURTHA History:

The amphibious transport dock JOHN P. MURTHA began as a program decision on April 9, 2010, when the Navy announced that the tenth SAN ANTONIO-class LPD would bear the name of the late congressman and Marine veteran John P. Murtha. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, won the construction contract on April 1, 2011; keel authentication followed on June 6, 2012, launch on October 30, 2014, and christening on March 21, 2015. After builder's and acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2016, the Navy accepted delivery on May 13, 2016, placed the ship in service on August 11, 2016, and formally commissioned her at Philadelphia on October 8, 2016, with Donna Murtha as sponsor. The new ship then shifted to her homeport of San Diego, arriving November 18, 2016, to begin the standard post-delivery test and trials period.

Across 2017, the ship completed inspections, crew training and material checks typical of a first-of-class follow ship's shakedown, culminating in Final Contract Trials, after which JOHN P. MURTHA returned to Naval Base San Diego on July 21, 2017, cleared to transition from the post-delivery phase to fleet operations and workups.

In 2018, she supported NASA's Orion spacecraft program as the primary platform for Underway Recovery Test-7 off Southern California, demonstrating the LPD's well-deck, boat and aviation interoperability for future crewed capsule recoveries on November 5, 2018. The same year and into early 2019, her crew cycled through pre-deployment certifications with an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).

On May 1, 2019, JOHN P. MURTHA deployed for the first time with the BOXER (LHD 4) ARG and the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, sailing alongside USS BOXER and USS HARPERS FERRY (LSD 49). After crossing the Pacific she made a scheduled port visit to Visakhapatnam, India, arriving June 11-13, and on June 14 conducted maneuvering and communications drills in the Bay of Bengal with the Indian Navy destroyer INS RANVIJAY (D 55) - a practical step toward expanding bilateral amphibious cooperation. By July, she was operating from the Arabian Sea into the Gulf of Aden amid spiking regional tensions. On July 18, within the same ARG, BOXER reported downing an Iranian unmanned aerial system while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the deployed group's deterrent posture at a critical chokepoint for global energy trade. In August, the ARG shifted to exercises and presence operations around the Arabian Peninsula, including a port visit to Saudi Arabia noted on August 26, and participated in multilateral training such as Eager Lion 2019 before re-entering the U.S. 7th Fleet area on September 23 for the homeward journey. The group called at Pearl Harbor on November 13, and JOHN P. MURTHA returned to San Diego on November 27, 2019, closing a Western Pacific-Indian Ocean deployment that earned the ship the 2019 Battle "E" for overall combat readiness.

Following post-deployment stand-down and maintenance, command passed on July 10, 2020, during a change-of-command ceremony in San Diego. Through 2021, the ship conducted local operations and safety drills while cycling crews, training and systems for the next certification phase.

The MAKIN ISLAND (LHD 8) ARG formed in 2022 with JOHN P. MURTHA and USS ANCHORAGE (LPD 23) joining flagship USS MAKIN ISLAND. Departing San Diego on November 9, 2022, JOHN P. MURTHA briefly returned to port for a maintenance fix and rejoined the deployment within days. The ship made a scheduled port call at Guam, departing December 10, before continuing west to Southeast Asia.

Operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet in early 2023 with the embarked 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the ARG arrived in Singapore on January 8 to start CARAT/MAREX Singapore. There, JOHN P. MURTHA's well deck put a Landing Craft Utility ashore in a combined amphibious landing on Sudong Island alongside Republic of Singapore Navy landing craft from RSS ENDURANCE (207), reflecting the exercise's focus on ship-to-shore connectors, beachhead control and command-and-control interoperability. After concluding a Singapore port visit on January 31, the ship sailed to Timor-Leste for CARAT/MAREX Timor-Leste in Dili from February 10-15, integrating with the F-FDTL and conducting community and professional exchanges. In March, the ARG completed COBRA GOLD 2023 in Thailand and transited the Luzon Strait while conducting operations with USS CHUNG-HOON (DDG 93) and USS AMERICA (LHA 6). In April, JOHN P. MURTHA entered Subic Bay, Philippines, offloading equipment on April 23 for BALIKATAN 2023 - then the largest U.S.-Philippine exercise - emphasizing combined maritime operations, sea denial and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief across Luzon and Palawan. After a mid-May liberty and logistics visit to Guam, the ARG crossed back into the eastern Pacific, returning to San Diego the week of June 6, 2023, after about seven months underway.

In late August and early September 2023, JOHN P. MURTHA shifted north to the Bering Sea to support Operation POLAR DAGGER, integrating Naval Special Warfare elements launched from her well deck via combatant craft assault to conduct over-the-beach patrols around Shemya Island and practice defense of critical infrastructure in austere Arctic conditions. The operations highlighted the LPD's utility as a mothership for special operations forces in high-latitude environments and broadened fleet-SOF interoperability.

After the deployment cycle, the Navy awarded BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair a Selected Restricted Availability package for JOHN P. MURTHA on July 27, 2023, funding a maintenance and modernization period planned to run into 2024. On January 12, 2024, a change-of-command ceremony took place aboard the USS MIDWAY (CV 41) Museum in San Diego while the ship was in the yard period, with Navy statements noting concurrent upgrades and refurbishment of key systems ahead of her next operations phase.

With the availability complete by late 2024, JOHN P. MURTHA resumed underway periods in U.S. 3rd Fleet in 2025, embarking midshipmen for at-sea familiarization in July and conducting well-deck operations with landing craft on August 26, as she returned to routine Pacific training, amphibious certifications and presence operations from her San Diego homeport.

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Homeports of USS JOHN P. MURTHA:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at Philadelphia, Penn.
2016 - present	San Diego, Calif.

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USS JOHN P. MURTHA Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Sebastian Thoma and shows the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 20, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 11, 2017.

The photo below was taken by Sebastian Thoma and shows the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on November 10, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the JOHN P. MURTHA arriving at San Diego, Calif., and a few hours later at the Naval Base on September 28, 2018.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the JOHN P. MURTHA at San Diego, Calif., on March 2, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on November 28, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base Pearl Harbor, Hi., on March 18, 2022.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the JOHN P. MURTHA at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 29, 2022.

The photos below were taken by me and show USS JOHN P. MURTHA undergoing a Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair on July 26, 2024.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS JOHN P. MURTHA undergoing a Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair on October 15, 2024.

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