General Dynamics NASSCO today began construction of the future USNS John Glenn, the second ship of the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) program. The 765-foot long ship is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in the first quarter of 2014. When in service, the ship will be used as an offshore staging area for Navy and U.S. Marine Corps personnel and equipment.

NASSCO has construction contracts to build a total of three Mobile Landing Platform ships. The first ship of the class, the future USNS Montford Point, is currently 48 percent complete at the San Diego shipyard. Once delivered to the fleet, MLP ships will join the Maritime Prepositioning Force squadrons that are strategically located around the world to enable rapid response in a crisis. These ships will provide a “pier at sea” that will become the core of the Navy/Marine Corps sea basing concept. This capability will allow prepositioning ships to offload equipment and supplies to the MLP for transshipment to shore by other vessels.