Anchorage-class dock landing ship

The Anchorage class was a group of five dock landing ships built for the United States Navy and commissioned between 1969 and 1972, with USS Anchorage as the name ship. The class was ordered in the mid 1960s to replace the aging wartime dock landing ships of the Ashland and Casa Grande classes, and its main job was to carry extra landing craft to supplement those of the amphibious transport docks. Each ship was a little larger than the preceding Thomaston class and had a large well dock aft for landing craft, with a removable flight deck over it for helicopter operations but no hangar. The ships were driven by two geared steam turbines on two shafts, rated at 24,000 shaft horsepower, for a speed of about 20 knots. Lead ship Anchorage was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The US Navy retired all five by 2003, and Taiwan later operated former ships of the class. The Whidbey Island and Harpers Ferry classes succeeded them.