Keel authentication ceremony held

AVONDALE, La. - Northrop Grumman held a keel authentication ceremony Friday for Somerset (LPD 25), the ninth ship in the LPD 17 series of San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships being built by the company. Somerset is named in honor of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who prevented terrorist hijackers from reaching their target on Sept. 11, 2001. Somerset is the county in Pennsylvania in which United Flight 93 crashed. Construction of is taking place at the Avondale shipyard, with fabrication support from the three other company facilities in Pascagoula and Gulfport, Miss., and Tallulah, La. The 684-foot, 105-foot-wide LPD transport dock ships are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft and Expeditionary Fighting vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the Osprey. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 12/11/09)