A training aircraft sits on the recently renovated flight deck of the USS Kearsarge on April 15, 2026, as part of Fleet Week Houston. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
HOUSTON — The tour groups moving through the USS Kearsarge as part of the city’s first Fleet Week are getting a glimpse of the amphibious assault ship at its finest. The paint is near-perfect, the gym equipment brand new and the flight deck smooth and gleaming in the Texas sunshine.
The more than 30-year-old ship is about seven months out of dry dock at its home station of Norfolk, Va., where it received a nearly $300 million renovation. It took about two years to complete and made the ship a more comfortable and efficient space for sailors, while also enabling it to support the F-35B Lightning II, the Marine Corps’ most modern fighter jet.
“There’s things that have to be done because of the engines, the way the engine actually thrusts with a lot of exhaust down on the deck to do a vertical takeoff and landing,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said Wednesday during an interview in Houston.
Two F-35B Lightning II aircraft, attached to the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 542, prepare to land on the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge on Feb. 10, 2026, in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first time an F-35B Lightning II aircraft had landed on Kearsarge. (Dylan Spears/U.S. Navy)
The work was part of an ongoing Navy effort to upgrade all Wasp- and America-class ships, he said. These amphibious warships are also known as landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships, or landing helicopter assault (LHA) ships, and are designed to get Marines to the shore with a combination of aircraft and landing craft.
To accommodate the F-35, the Kearsarge and similar ships need to have the flight deck upgraded to materials that can handle the extreme heat created by the jet. The ships were initially built to support the AV-8 Harrier, an attack aircraft capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing.
“The Harrier has done a lot for us,” Caudle said. “We still are deploying with it on ships that haven’t been upgraded yet, so it’s still very capable. But the F-35 is a much-improved airframe.”
The USS Tripoli, an LHA now deployed to the Arabian Sea, not only can support the F-35, but it has a non-traditional well deck that can handle more than 20 aircraft during peak operations, according to U.S. Central Command.
As part of Fleet Week Houston, the first in a Texas city, the Kearsarge’s flight deck did not include an F-35 for display. It instead held a training aircraft that sailors use to gain familiarity with moving a jet in and out of the ship’s hangar. It also had two landing craft, air cushion hovercraft on display in its well deck, which would be used to move personnel and vehicles to shore.
Outside of operations, the renovations touched nearly every aspect of sailor life — berthing, the galleys, the gym and even the addition of the Liberty Center, where sailors and Marines can play video games, watch movies and check out gear, such as fishing poles. The center was paid for through a grant and is managed by the ship’s fun boss, a civilian who manages onboard recreation.
The USS Kearsarge gym received all new equipment as part of a renovation of the ship completed in late 2025. It was on display April 15, 2026, as part of Fleet Week Houston. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Seaman Apprentice Mora Villalobos cooks chicken in the recently renovated galley of the USS Kearsarge on April 15, 2026. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Marine Cpl. Christopher Lopez chops onions in the recently renovated galley of the USS Kearsarge on April 15, 2026. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
The USS Kearsarge received a nearly $300 million renovation that took roughly two years to complete. It returned to the water in September 2025 and entered Galveston Bay in Texas on April 15, 2026, as part of Fleet Week Houston. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
Petty Officer 1st Class Brooke Sumner, a yeoman, said the gym has been her favorite improvement because it created more space, and equipment is much better.
“It’s as nice as a Navy vessel could be,” she said aboard the Kearsarge on Wednesday.
She’s been assigned to the ship for more than two years and said the renovation also made her job in administration for the executive department more efficient. Her team was initially split into two offices, but now the wall has been removed between them. The office also got new floors and upgraded equipment.
“It’s a big boat [and] trying to find someone could take hours,” Sumner said. “This makes us so we’re all on the same page. We work way more efficiently. I think we went up, like, 80% since all of this got renovated.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Brooke Sumner, a yeoman, works in her recently renovated office space aboard the USS Kearsarge on April 15, 2026. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)