The Austin class was subdivided into 3 sub-classes with some minor differences. These were the Austin, Cleveland and Trenton sub-classes, with the last 2 being equipped for command missions.These ships were considered the first built under the concept of “balanced cargo”, that is, they could take troops along with their equipment and could landing them from a single type of ship.The Austin class well deck measures 51.2 x 15.2 m and was aft, under the helicopter’s flight deck. They had an elevated monorails system to carry the load to the landing crafts.This class usually carried about 930 Marines, except some ships in which they only carried 840 for hosting command and control facilities, as in the USS Cleveland (on the image).(USS Denver ship). In the Austin class, it was possible to transport in a single ship everything necessary for the infantry to fight as soon as it reached the beach. This included everything from supplies to tanks, artillery or engineering equipment.(USS Denver ship). They could operate with LCU, LCM-6, LCM-8 and LCPL landing crafts and even with huge LCAC hovercrafts. In addition, they carried different US Marine’s helicopters combinations.(USS Duluth ship). From Vietnam, to Rwanda, going through Iraq, Beirut, Bosnia, Somalia, East Timor, Yemen ……. there is no continent where some Austin vessel have not fulfilled a mission.(USS Shreveport ship). The payload was almost 4,000 tons, practically twice as much as the previous Raleigh class. They also had a telescopic hangar for maintenance tasks of the helicopters on board.The USS Trenton ship belonged to the last Austin sub-class, and in 2007 it was sold to the Indian Navy. There remains in service under designation INS Jalashwa (L-41).
