The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA-7) completed the ship’s first Combat System Ship Qualification Trials (CSSQT) earlier this month, the Navy said Aug. 18.
The service noted these trials are a milestone where crew teams demonstrate the ship’s weapons systems’ ability to communicate and destroy incoming threats in an operational environment.
The Navy said that during these qualification phases the service team conducted multiple trials to validate the ship’s self-defense systems’ performance including radar tests and operating the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), NATO Sea Sparrow, and Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) weapons systems.
“This test is designed to go through all of the things that form the backbone and execution of combat systems. This was just one of several at-sea periods where the team not only had to practice, but execute complex events. This was a huge win for the crew because they got to see all of that hard work come to fruition,” Lt. Cmdr. Paul Gillett, Tripoli’s command, control, communications computers, combat systems and interoperability (C5I) officer, said in a statement.
“I can’t say enough about how pleased we are with Tripoli’s performance during the Post Delivery test and trials phase, and their recent successful completion of the Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials (CSSQT) is just another step in the right direction toward fleet introduction for this ship. This is just one of many milestones that LHA 7 has met on the path to becoming a command and control center of capability for Amphibious Ready Groups in the future fight,” Capt. Cedric McNeal, Program Manager for Amphibious Warfare Programs at Program Executive Office Ships, added.
Following CSSQTs, LHA-7 is next set to focus on additional certifications and qualification to ensure it is combat ready.
The Tripoli is the newest Huntington Ingalls Industries’ [HII] America-class amphibious assault ship and is homeported in San Diego. It is assigned to Amphibious Squadron 7 and designed to accommodate the Marine Corps’ F-35B Joint Strike Fighter and MV-22 Osprey.
Previously, in March, LHA-7 completed its Fitting Out Availability, which entailed changes to the ship from lessons learned and feedback from sister ship USS America’s (LHA-6) availability and work postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Defense Daily, April 2).