That's almost as cool as
Posted on 11/21/2014 7:59:30 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
THOUSANDS of mattresses, pillows and doonas, tonnes of food and water and 400 sailors, soldiers and air force personnel have been installed on the navy’s newest and biggest ship — the 27,800-tonne HMAS Canberra.
Known as a Landing Helicopter Dock or LHD — the $1.5 billion warship will be commissioned into service with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and handed over to Navy Chief Vice-Admiral Tim Barrett at Garden Island in Sydney on Friday November 28.
The crew of Nuship Canberra (she actually becomes HMAS Canberra at commissioning) have spent the past 18 months training on advanced land based simulators preparing to take control of the most advanced ship to ever serve in the RAN.
AWESOME STATS At first glance the sheer bulk of the LHD is a shock to even seasoned old salts. Tied up next to the supply ship HMAS Success at her home base in Sydney Harbour the behemoth dwarfs what was previously one of the navy’s biggest vessels. She also towers over nearby apartments including the ritzy pads of Sydney’s rich and famous, such as actor Russell Crowe, on the famed Woolloomooloo finger wharf.
At 230-metres long the Canberra is as long as Melbourne’s Rialto Tower is high and it could accommodate four of the navy’s 3600-tonne Anzac Class frigates on her deck.
In addition to the 400 crew the 32-metre-wide vessel can carry and sustain 1100 fully equipped infantry troops and 110 trucks and armoured vehicles up to and including Abrams main battle tanks. She can house 18 helicopters and up to eight medium lift choppers will be able to operate simultaneously from six landing points on the flight deck.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytelegraph.com.au ...
ping
much appreciated!
Officially, because the Spanish design, they are based on had the skijump (the Spanish fly Harriers off theirs) and it was cheaper to keep it rather than redesign.
Unofficially - while there are no official plans for the LHDs to operate as small aircraft carriers, keeping the skijump gives us more options for the future than getting rid of it. And even if we never fly our own planes off it, an extra deck for British or US Marine F35Bs might be useful in some joint operation in the future.
Guess I should click on the link to the article.
Now it makes sense!
That's almost as cool as
Always glad to see the Aussies beef up anything military! They have been great allies to us, unlike some other “allies”...
100%
Have the Australians heard of anti-ship missiles? This large target full of combustibles has no serious anti-missile system.
Maybe they will fit something during an overhaul. There will be Phalanxes to spare when one of their old OHP class frigates put up their shoes.
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