USN Amphibs Bougainville, Fallujah Deliveries Are Pushed Another Year

The next two big-deck amphibious warships will take about nine years each to build, as the Navy pushes the planned delivery date for the vessels by another year, USNI News has learned.

The future USS Bougainville (LHA-8) will now deliver to the Navy in July of 2027 instead of August of 2026, according to the Fiscal Year 2027 budget justification documents. The service cited “construction performance indicators and shipyard labor challenges” as the reason for the delay.

The future USS Fallujah (LHA-9) will now deliver to the Navy in July of 2031 instead of the previously projected September 2030 date because of “the shipyard’s formal Over Target Schedule (OTS) re-baselining effort due to shipyard labor challenges,” according to the budget books.

The latest delays to the two ships come after last year’s budget documents revealed one-year delays for both Bougainville and Fallujah, USNI News reported at the time. The Navy in the FY 2026 budget books cited the same reasons for the delays to Bougainville that the service referenced in the budget books published last week.

In a statement to USNI News, Ingalls spokesperson Kimberly Aguillard said the shipyard, its suppliers and the Navy are trying to speed up the work incorporating technology on Bougainville.

“Following a detailed assessment of LHA 8 and LPD 30 late last year, we adjusted the delivery sequence to accelerate LPD 30 into 2026 and shift LHA 8 into 2027 as we have previously stated, reflecting LPD 30’s lower risk profile and the first of class complexity of LHA 8,” Aguillard told USNI News. “This sequencing supports Navy crew phasing, avoids workforce and equipment conflicts, and provides clear priorities for Ingalls and Navy teams through upcoming test and trial milestones. We remain fully committed to delivering high quality, mission ready ships to the fleet.”

Bougainville is the first ship in the America class to reintroduce the well-deck since the Wasp-class amphibs. The ship is also getting outfitted with Raytheon’s Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar that is based on the AN/SPY-6 air search radar, which has not yet been deployed on any surface ships in the U.S. Navy. The Navy is currently performing tests on USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), the first U.S. ship to field the SPY-6. Part of the tests on Lucas include integrating the radar with the Lockheed Martin Aegis Combat System.

This year’s budget documents included a timeline for the future USS Helmand Province (LHA-10). That ship is also facing a one-year delay and will deliver in September of 2034 instead of September 2033 because of “the shipyard’s formal OTS re-baselining effort due to shipyard labor challenges,” the budget documents read. Ingalls Shipbuilding has not yet started construction on Helmand Province, but the Navy issued the contract in September 2024.

HII officials have said the yard should build the LHAs on four-year centers to maintain a stable supply chain and workforce at the yard in Pascagoula, Miss.

Ingalls built the Wasp-class big-deck amphibious warships on roughly four-year centers, with the exception of USS Makin Island (LHD-8), which was the first one to have a new propulsion plant that used gas turbines instead of boilers. The number of construction days – based on data from the Naval Vessel Register – to build big decks has increased in the new America class since Ingalls built Makin Island. USS America (LHA-6) – which the shipyard built faster than Makin Island, but in more time than the remaining ships in the Wasp class – is the exception.

Ingalls has recently faced numerous workforce challenges at the shipyard, where many experienced workers retired during the COVID-19 pandemic. The shipyard has also struggled to retain talent as it competes with the local service industry.

The delays for the new big-deck amphibs that are under construction come as the Navy’s in-service amphibious fleet has struggled with readiness challenges in recent years. In December of 2024, the Government Accountability Office published a report concluding that amphibious ships had a 46 percent readiness rate – or the percentage of time they were prepared to deploy – despite a 50 percent requirement.

Since that report, Navy officials – including Adm. James Kilby when he was acting as the chief of naval operations last year – have discussed the need to address the amphibious readiness problem. The Navy also announced a pilot program last year on both the east and west coasts that will finalize the maintenance availabilities for big-deck amphibious ships more than one year before they get to the yard. The idea was that by giving contractors more time to order spare parts and plan, they can decrease the number of delay days.

There are currently three Amphibious Ready Groups with embarked Marine Expeditionary Units deployed across the globe, meaning the Navy is meeting the Marine Corps’ stated goal for a 3.0 ARG/MEU presence.