Tag Archives: USS Boxer (LHD 4)

Boxer Walkaround

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With a big boxing match in the news today, how about the biggest Boxer we care about here on the blog, recently seen at play in the historically significant Tsushima Strait. We’re talking about the 29-year-old Ingalls-built Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), seen conducting flight ops on 18 September 2024 while on her, um, abbreviated Westpac deployment. 

All are U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Finney.

It looks like “America’s Golden Gator” has a good mix of 15th MEU aviation assets aboard including five F-35B Lightning IIs of VMFA-225, and nine MV-22 Ospreys of VMM-165 along with a mix of eight AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venoms of HMLA-369. Sadly, no CH-53s are embarked it would seem.

How about this great shot of Boxer’s stern, showing a good mix of her self-defense suite to include an MK 38 Mod 2 25mm gun mount (one of four installed) centerline above her dock door, with an eight-cell Sea Sparrow launcher (one of two) above it. There is a 21-cell RAM launcher (1 of 2) to port and a CIWS (1 of 3) to starboard. Note the unmanned M2 .50 cal mounts as well.

The great bow-on flightline shot also shows off Boxer’s 2nd RAM and CIWS installation, just ahead of the island, as well as her SLQ-32 EW suite and commo array on the roof, with the big AN/SPS-48 air search radar on top. Also, it gives some appreciation of the size of the Osprey, which sports a 45-foot wingspan and 30-ton max TO weight. For reference, the big A-5 Vigilante of the Cold War only had a 53-foot span with roughly the same TO weight.

Deck The P-Ways!

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Naval Base San Diego just held their annual Christmas decoration contest and the ships, as always, look great. Surely some of these images will be celebrated by generations not yet born as icons of the “Old Navy” pre-whatever war comes in future decades.

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO (December 15, 2022) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59), displays lights for holiday festivity. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erica K. R. Higa)

USS Sterett DDG-104

USS Zumwalt DDG-1000

USS Princeton CG-59

USS Boxer LHD-4

USS Paul Hamilton DDG-60

USS Cowpens

USS Tripoli

For the record, the “People’s Choice” from online votes was Boxer, which is important to me personally as I was a constructor plankowner, working on her both pre and post-christening at Ingalls many, many years ago, and sailed on her during her pre-commissioning tiger cruise.

USN Flattop Updates

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The Navy has seen several important carrier and carrier-adjacent benchmarks this week that I thought were noteworthy enough to mention “in case you missed it.”

Lightning Carrier No.4

The fourth Wasp-class Gator Supreme, USS Boxer (LHD-4) returned to sea for the first time in more than two years after completing an extensive $207 million planned maintenance availability at BAE Systems in San Diego.

She is now about to be F-35B rated as a “Lightning Carrier” by 2023. Her sisterships USS Wasp, Essex, and Makin Island already have the same capability and Iwo Jima and Bataan are set to be added to the list in 2024-25.

By themselves, the four modded Wasps offer more carrier power than any other current fleet of flattops in the world not flying a U.S. flag.

“The USS Boxer [dry-dock availability] will complete a combination of maintenance, modernization, and repair of the following systems: Hull structure, propulsion, electrical plant, auxiliary systems, and communications and combat systems, as well as alterations to prepare the ship for operations with the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF),” according to a statement from Naval Sea Systems command in 2020.

Importantly, Boxer will also be the first Wasp to the Marine Corps to receive a complete F-35 set up for Spot 9 landings.

Boxer is a sweet spot for me, as I was working at Ingalls and am a constructor plankowner of the ship, having gone out on her pre-commissioning cruise before she was handed over. Nice to see her back in the fleet.

Warship78 passes INSURV

Class leader supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) successfully completed her five-day Board of Inspection and Survey special trial, “marking the first time a Ford-class ship executed an inspection of this kind.” Of course, she was commissioned five years ago, so it’s kinda about time, but between weapon elevator issues, EMALS and so many other new systems, it is understandable, and the inspection sets the ship up for her “special deployment” which is just around the corner.

“During INSURV, more than 180 inspectors embarked Ford, observing and assessing more than 300 demonstrations,” noted the Navy.

Damage Controlman Fireman Melissa Alvarado, right, from Dalton, Georgia, assigned to USS Gerald R. Ford’s (CVN 78) engineering department, displays equipment during a damage control Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) special trials, June 13, 2022. Ford is in port at Naval Station Norfolk conducting an INSURV assessment to report ship readiness and ensure all spaces and equipment meet Navy standards. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alex Timewell)

80K for GHWB

USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77), the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier, celebrated the milestone of 80,000 catapult launches and 80,000 recoveries on the flight deck since she was commissioned in 2009. The 80K bird was an EA-18G Growler from The Patriots of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 140 on the trap and the cat was an E-2D Hawkeye from The Bluetails of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 121, and was part of the certification for the Freedom Fighters of CVW-7.

220615-N-SY758-3033 ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 15, 2022) An E/A-18G Growler, attached to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 140, lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) for the 80,000th recovery, June 15, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brandon Roberson)

The Gipper and the Boxer

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You have to love a good photo-ex, as they are naval history in the making.

These shots, credited to Mass Communication Specialists Brian P. Caracci and Erwin Jacob V. Miciano, show Carrier Strike Group 5 flagship USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) along with USS Boxer (LHD 4), trailed by the cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) and another unidentified Tico as well as a late flight Burke DDG of DESRON 15, 6 October 2019.

Either way, it is a lot of firepower in just five hulls if you think about it. We are talking 300+ VLS cells, 100~ aircraft, five 127mm guns, etc.

Nice to see a Gator laying some steel down

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With small fast attack craft easier than ever to produce in swarms on the cheap in both manned and unmanned versions, it is nice to see the Gator Navy at least practicing on these as targets.

PACIFIC OCEAN (March 21, 2019) A fast inshore attack craft is damaged after being fired on by the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) during a live-fire gunnery exercise in the Pacific Ocean, March 21, 2019. Sailors and Marines of the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) train together at sea to increase the tactical proficiency, lethality, and interoperability in an Era of Great Power Competition. USS Boxer is underway conducting routine operations as a part of USS Boxer (ARG) in the eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Danielle A. Baker)

Of course, today its all just 25mm and 30mm guns as well as some .50s, but back in the old days ‘Phibs bristled with a mix of 3″ and 40mm cannon as well as a smattering of 5-inchers.

Church services for men of the Third Division, on the forecastle of USS LST-4, one day out while en route to the Southern France “Dragoon” landings, 13 August 1944. Photographed by Smith. Note 20mm and 40mm guns, with limiting rails around them to prevent firing into the ship’s structure. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Catalog #: SC 192719

Torch Landings, November 1942: “Navy gun crews man their weapons, on the after deckhouse of a transport en route to Morocco, 26 October 1942. Note other ships of the invasion convoy in the background. Guns seen include 3 inch/50 dual-purpose, 20mm A.A. machine gun, .30cal Lewis Machine Gun, and A 5 inches/51 Low Angle Gun.” Description: Catalog #: SC 162349

Speaking of which, the original first few vessels of the Tarawa-class LHAs– of which Boxer is a later Wasp-class LHD outgrowth off– toted a pair of 5-inch Mk45s forward for just such occasions as well as some NGF support ashore. Not well liked, they were removed to get a little more deck space.

USS SAIPAN (LHA-2) note 5-inch guns forward. Now that will scratch the paint job of an incoming FAC at distance…

Maybe its time to bring a few (bigger) guns back to the Gator Navy?