USS Cleveland (LPD-7)

USS Cleveland in February 2000
History
United States
Name	Cleveland
Namesake	Cleveland, Ohio
Operator	United States Navy
Ordered	25 January 1963
Builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down	30 November 1964
Launched	7 May 1966
Commissioned	21 April 1967
Decommissioned	30 September 2011
Stricken	13 November 2017
Identification	Hull number: LPD-7
Fate	Sunk as target, 17 June 2024
General characteristics
Class and type	Austin-class amphibious transport dock
Tonnage	7,592 DWT
Displacement	9,734 long tons (9,890 t) light 17,326 long tons (17,604 t) full
Length	569 ft 11 in (173.7 m) overall 547 ft 11 in (167 m) waterline
Beam	99 ft 9 in (30.4 m) extreme 84 ft 0 in (25.6 m) waterline
Draft	22 ft 0 in (6.7 m) maximum
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Complement	164 officers, 396 enlisted, 840 troops, 90 flag staff
Armament	Initially: 4 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber AA guns, 2 × 25 mm Mk 38 chain guns, 2 × Phalanx CIWS, 8 × .50-caliber machine guns
Aircraft carried	two CH-46 Sea Knights or two CH-53 Sea Stallions or four UH-1 Iroquois ("Hueys") or AH-1 Cobras or two AV-8 Harriers

USS Cleveland (LPD-7), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city in Ohio. Her keel was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 7 May 1966, and was commissioned on 21 April 1967 at Norfolk, Virginia. At the time of decommissioning, she was the third-oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy, behind USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and USS Enterprise.

After commissioning, Cleveland changed homeport to San Diego, California, to become a member of the Pacific Fleet's Amphibious Force. Cleveland divided her time between operations in the Eastern Pacific and extended deployments to the Western Pacific. Cleveland was normally assigned as part of an Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) and, with her embarked Marines and other forces, performed a wide variety of missions.

In 2024, She was used as a SINKEX target and hit by Land Based Anti-Ship Missile.^[1]