Amphibious warfare ship in the context of "Landing helicopter dock"

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is a part of the United States Department of Defense and is one of the six armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.

The Marine Corps has been part of the United States Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834 with its sister service, the United States Navy. The USMC operates installations on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world. Additionally, several of the Marines' tactical aviation squadrons, primarily Marine Fighter Attack squadrons, are also embedded in Navy carrier air wings and operate from the aircraft carriers.

An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship designed for spearheading amphibious incursions of marines into enemy territories during an armed conflict, via launching either naval landings or air assaults and also by providing shipborne close air support and logistics for landed friendly forces. Such a ship is typically the capital ship of a dedicated fleet known as the amphibious ready group or expeditionary strike group.

Amphibious assault ships evolved from aircraft carriers converted for specific use as helicopter carriers, which, as a result, are often mistaken for conventional fixed-wing aircraft carriers. Like the aircraft carriers they were developed from, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft, and some latest models (e.g. China's Type 076) have catapult systems for assisted takeoff of fixed-wing light aircraft such as UCAVs and have a secondary role as drone carriers. Most modern AAS designs also carry landing craft with most including a well deck, usually at the stern, to support large LCACs (hovercraft) and LCUs, which can insert both infantry and combat vehicles directly onto land.

Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Production of landing craft peaked during World War II, with a significant number of different designs produced in large quantities by the United Kingdom and United States.

Because of the need to run up onto a suitable beach, World War II landing craft were flat-bottomed, and many designs had a flat front, often with a lowerable ramp, rather than a normal bow. This made them difficult to control and very uncomfortable in rough seas. The control point (too rudimentary to call a bridge on LCA and similar craft) was normally at the extreme rear of the vessel, as were the engines. In all cases, they were known by an abbreviation derived from the official name rather than by the full title.

An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently operate this kind of ship. The ships are generally designed to transport troops into a war zone by sea, primarily using landing craft, although invariably they also have the capability to operate transport helicopters.

Amphibious transport docks perform the mission of amphibious transports, amphibious cargo ships, and the older dock landing ships (LSD) by incorporating both a flight deck and a well deck that can be ballasted and deballasted to support landing craft or amphibious vehicles. The main difference between LSDs and LPDs is that while both have helicopter landing decks, the LPD also has hangar facilities for protection and maintenance. In the United States Navy, the newer class of LPD has succeeded the older classes of LSDs, and both the Navy and United States Marine Corps are looking to the LPD to be the basis of their new LX(R) program to replace their LSDs.

A dock landing ship (also called landing ship, dock or LSD) is an amphibious warfare ship with a well dock to transport and launch landing craft and amphibious vehicles. Some ships with well decks, such as the Soviet Ivan Rogov class, also have bow doors to enable them to deliver vehicles directly onto a beach (like a tank landing ship). Modern dock landing ships also operate helicopters.

A ship with a well deck (docking well) can transfer cargo to landing craft in rougher seas far more easily than a ship which has to use cranes or a stern ramp. The U.S. Navy hull classification symbol for a ship with a well deck depends on its facilities for aircraft—a (modern) LSD has a helicopter deck, a landing platform dock also has a hangar, and a landing helicopter dock or landing helicopter assault has a full-length flight deck.

HMS Albion is a landing platform dock originally built for the Royal Navy, the first of the two-ship Albion class. Built by BAE Systems Marine in Barrow-in-Furness, Albion was launched in March 2001 by the Princess Royal. Her sister ship, Bulwark, was launched in November 2001, also from Barrow. Affiliated to the city of Chester and based in Plymouth, she is the ninth ship to carry the name Albion (after Albion, an ancient name of Great Britain), stretching back to the 74-gun 1763 warship, and last carried by an aircraft carrier decommissioned in 1973 after 19 years service. Designed as an amphibious warfare ship, Albion carries troops, normally Royal Marines, and vehicles up to the size of the Challenger 2 main battle tank. She can deploy these forces using four Landing Craft Utility (LCUs) and four Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVPs). A flight deck supports helicopter operations.

Albion's future came under review as part of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. She was the fleet flagship from December 2010 until October 2011, and then again from March 2018 until January 2021. On 20 November 2024 Defence Secretary John Healey announced that both Albion and her sister Bulwark would be withdrawn from service by March 2025.