Shipbucket

Wow great discussion guys. The nassco design looks heavily dereived from the T-AKE it even has that signature dry shelter running down the length of the ship and it makes since for HII to build LX(R) especially since it will be based off LPD-17. Further research looks that S.Korea's DSME helped design this ship as well as the MLP. Originally I thought the new oiler would of just been a T-ake hull with a MLP superstructure. But to simplify training and supply chain going with the take makes sense.

On top of that it should be noted that follow ons to LHA-8 will come in rapid succession in the 20's. With LHAR flight 1's being planned in 20, 22, 24, Probably to deal with the rapid obsolences of LHD-1 through 3.i could see Nassco winning the LHA-8 just to diversify the shipbuilding base. I personally like the idea of building any big deck aviation capable ship on the west coast in addition to the east coast.

Another story on the same site says new fleet tugs are due in 2017. There are a lot of commercial options available for this.

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Supreme Commander of the Astrofleets