Posted on 04/09/2014 10:07:45 PM PDT by naturalman1975
THIS ship is absolutely gigantic. It’s easily the biggest warship ever built for the Royal Australian Navy.
It’s a Landing Helicopter Dock called the NUSHIP Canberra, and it weighs 27,800 tonnes.
The ship will be officially commissioned by the navy later this year. It’s currently being tested by BAE systems, the company that built it, along with some members of the new crew.
The massive vessel is designed to transport and deploy troops and equipment around the world. The navy says it will be used for both military and humanitarian missions.
So, how is anyone supposed to describe the sheer size of this thing? We could reel off a long list of impressive numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
I joined the RAN hoping to make a career on carriers (I knew I'd have to go where they wanted me, but the carrier had the mystique for me). I looked on in disappointment and horror as the socialist government of the mid 1980s decided that we really didn't need any sort of carrier capability. HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide (as they will be when commissioned) are, at least, heading us back in the right direction. Officially there are no plans to operate them as small carriers, instead they will carry helicopters - but the ski jump wasn't retained just because it looked good. Options are being kept open and if and when the F35B or perhaps some other genuinely available option appears, I hope there will, at least, be some thinking going on about capability.
If nothing else, they do both increase our capability to carry out operations on a grander scale than we have for a while - East Timor would have been much less fraught with decks like these, even if all they were flying were helicopters, and one of them would be invaluable just as the moment in the Indian Ocean search area.
The captain has an American or Canadian accent. Is that common?
Keel seems a bit shallow for deepwater storms...
Speaking of Australian ships,it would be incredible if the intense search of the ocean floor for the Malaysian jet were to turn up the wreck of the HMAS Sydney. May have been the single worst loss of life the Australians suffered in WWII.
We’re a nation of immigrants :)
The Australian Defence Force is quite happy to look for talent overseas and see if we can attract it here on occasion. People from other Commonwealth countries, especially (having the same Queen makes transfer of allegiance fairly easy). Captain Sadlier used to be a Canadian - served 12 years in the Canadian forces, before joining the RAN where he’s served even longer.
Actually, we found HMAS Sydney a few years ago. She’s no longer lost.
My bad
The wreck of HMAS Sydney was found in March, 2008
Stand corrected.
It’s nice to know we will have help in the heavy lifting in South Asia.
Fair winds and following seas, Friend.
Nice boat...
Looks like a Modified RO/RO..
And we all know how stable those are. I assume they have accounted for that?
My guess, offhand is Canadian. Australia is still part of the Commonwealth.
It’s closely based off a Spanish design which has been in service for nearly a decade. It seems to work.
It looks like a pretty defenseless warship. Looks more like a freighter than a fighter.
Until, eventually, both limped away...mortally wounded.
Both crews -- and their ships -- are due honors.
That's a fearsome first world naval weapons system that can lay waste to any nearby nations taking a poke at Australia.
Helicopter/amphibious assault ship, my foot. It's capable of launching and retrieving STOL strike aircraft like the F35B while the Marines in helos and AMTRACs go ashore.
Well put. The SkyJump was a big clue, strangely left out in the story.
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