Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, passes Angel’s Gate Lighthouse as it arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, passes Angel’s Gate Lighthouse as it arrives for Fleet Week in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
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Sailors man the rails as the USS Essex arrives in San Pedro for Fleet Week on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The USS Essex arrived at the Port of Los Angeles late Tuesday for what will be its high-profile role at the 2026 Los Angeles Fleet Week festival in San Pedro.
The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship is a Wasp-class landing helicopter dock that was a star attraction when it visited L.A. Fleet Week in 2022. The Essex, whose home port is San Diego, is now docked at Berth 46 in the port’s Outer Harbor, where it will be available for public tours throughout Fleet Week, which will run from Friday to Monday.
The Essex will be joined by two U.S. Coast Guard ships: the Coast Guard Cutter Halibut, an 87-foot Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat stationed in Marina del Rey, and the USCGC Terrell Horne, a Fast Response Cutter based in Long Beach.
Those vessels will dock in the main harbor near the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, at Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard — and close to the main L.A. Fleet Week expo site, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., next to the battleship USS Iowa — on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and will be open for public tours through Memorial Day.
The Essex will be accessible only by shuttle. But it can be viewed from a distance of several vantage points above and around the port.
Carrying a crew of 1,000 U.S. sailors and Marines, the Essex was built at what is now Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship launched on Feb. 23, 1991, and was commissioned on Oct. 17, 1992. It is the fifth ship named for Essex County, Massachusetts, and served as the command ship for Expeditionary Strike Group Seven.
Assignments took the ship to the Persian Gulf in the early 2000s, among many other locations throughout the world. The Essex has also served in global relief missions.
While not an aircraft carrier — the ships that have often become show-stoppers at L.A. Fleet Week — the Essex is still massive. At 844 feet long, in fact, its nickname is The Iron Gator, and its motto is “Take Notice.”
The Wasp class landing helicopter dock amphibious assault ships provide the Marine Corps with the means to conduct ship-to-shore movement by helicopter and by landing craft, according to a Fleet Week news release. The ships can accommodate the landing craft utility and landing craft air cushion, can operate all helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft flown by the Marine Corps, and can operate and support AV-8B and F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft. They have extensive storage capacity and have proven useful in combat operations, major humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.
The amphibious assault ship USS Essex ranked No. 1 for volunteer hours among all ashore and afloat commands in San Diego, totaling 838 hours in 2023, according to a Navy article that outlined the ship’s local humanitarian work.