NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Huntington Ingalls Industries says its New Orleans-area shipyard has delivered the last of three ships named for 9/11 attack sites to the U.S. Navy.
The USS Somerset is named for the Pennsylvania county where a hijacked airliner crashed after passengers [sic – and crew] stormed the cockpit.
The company said in a news release Friday that the ship successfully completed builder’s trials in August and U.S. Navy acceptance trials in September. Ingalls has two more of the amphibious transport docks, also called landing platform/docks or LPDs, under construction in Pascagoula, Miss.
The $1.2 billion Somerset is the last ship to be made at the Avondale shipyard.
The ships are designed to launch helicopters, tilt-rotor aircraft and assault watercraft to bring up to 800 troops to shore.
The Somerset was christened in July 2012.
