MLP-2 Christening

The Navy will christen the second Mobile Landing Platform on Feb. 1 at a ceremony in San Diego, CA., the Navy announced today.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert will speak at the ceremony.

The ship completed builder's trials Jan. 13 and is scheduled for delivery to the Navy's Military Sealift Command in March 2014, Henry Stevens, head of Strategic and Theater Sealift programs, told Inside the Navy in an interview at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium in Arlington, VA, on Jan. 16.

The first of four planned MLP ships delivered on schedule and within budget on May 14, 2013. MLP-1 and MLP-2 will serve their original roles as part of a maritime prepositioning ship squadron that will allow for the offload of goods from cargo ships to landing craft or helicopters. MLP-2 will leverage float-on/float-off technology in order to partially submerge, facilitating easy movement of cargo and craft, according to the statement.

The third and fourth MLPs are slated to become Afloat Forward Staging Bases (AFSB), which include additional aviation and hangar space and will facilitate mine countermeasures, special operations and more. MLP-3, the first AFSB variant, is under construction. In the FY-14 defense appropriations bill, which cleared Congress on Jan. 16 as part of a massive $1.1 trillion omnibus bill and the president signed Jan. 17, appropriators gave the Navy $579 million for the fourth vessel, the second AFSB variant -- $55 million more than the Navy requested.

USNS John Glenn (MLP-2 ) is named for the former senator and legendary astronaut who is the last surviving member of the Mercury 7 crew, according to a Navy press release. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth on Friendship 7.

"The christening of the future USNS John Glenn (MLP-2), a ship that will help usher in a new age of navy and marine Corps operations, is a fitting tribute to a man whose years of service to his nation as a Marine, a U.S. senator and an astronaut helped shape the future of the United States itself," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in the statement.