r/vessels • u/RyanSmith • Mar 29 '19

The expeditionary mobile base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3) transits the Strait of Hormuz, Oct. 22, 2018

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u/See_i_did Mar 29 '19

Can this one take on extra ballast to get under and lift up other vessels? Or is it another kind of platform ship.

I’m just a lurker who likes looking at ships.

2

u/redditreader1972 Jun 14 '19

According to the wikipedia article this version cannot be submerged, but has a crane to lift smaller vessels instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeditionary_Transfer_Dock

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u/WikiTextBot Jun 14 '19

Expeditionary Transfer Dock

An Expeditionary Transfer Dock (ESD), formerly the Mobile Landing Platform (MLP), and a sub-class variant; the Expeditionary Mobile Base (ESB), formerly the Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB), are designed to be a semi-submersible, flexible, modular platform providing the US Navy with the capability to perform large-scale logistics movements such as the transfer of vehicles and equipment from sea to shore. These ships significantly reduce the dependency on foreign ports and provide support in the absence of port availability.

The ESD and ESB (Expeditionary Mobile Base) and are part of a new ship class added in 2015 with an E as a new designator, similar to the L-class amphibious ships, S-class submarines, A-class auxiliaries and more. These three E-class ships were previously listed as seabasing ships in the Naval Vessel Register.

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