Dock Landing Ship (LSD)

An amphibious ship built around a large well deck that floods down to launch and recover landing craft, with limited troop berthing and a helicopter platform but no hangar. The US hull symbol is LSD. The Whidbey Island class (LSD-41) carries up to four LCACs; the Harpers Ferry cargo variant (LSD-49) trades one LCAC bay for added cargo space. An LSD displaces roughly 16,000 tons. It is the well-deck workhorse: more landing-craft capacity than an LPD relative to its size, far less aviation than an LHD.