Posted on 10/27/2006 7:01:25 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
French Navy validates the BPC concept in Lebanon
10/10/2006
Better than a theory or a series of exercises, the deployment of the Mistral during the Lebanon crisis has enabled the Navy Headquarters to validate the new concept for a Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD): the Projection and Command Ship (BPC). Captain Frédéric Jubelin, who was the skipper of the ship until 5 September 2006, has accepted to take a look with us at the Baliste Operation and the baptism of fire of the BPC. This officer knows particularly well the ship as he arrived in Brest in September 2004, at a time when the Mistral was just being registered on the naval list. "We followed her construction and served as the leading crew for DCN . After 14 sea trials with industry during a total of 57 days, we got the feeling that the ship presented a huge potential. Then came the Long Duration Cruise (LDC) and finally the Baliste Operation, which confirmed our initial feeling". After three months of LDC, during which the Mistral proceeded her sea trials in warm waters, all the way to India, the summer months were to be spent on repairs, in particular of the faulty floors: "The ship has not yet been accepted into active service and she had just achieved her trials. There were parts which needed to be changed and warranty to clear. It was a real construction yard. From 3 July, half of the crew was on leave", Captain Jubelin recalls.
Emergency departure
Faced with the increasing intensity of combat between the Hezbollah and the Israeli army, the French Government decided, around mid-July, to strengthen the naval deployment already sent to Lebanon (ASW Frigate Jean de Vienne and LPA Sirocco). "On Saturday 15th, I was ordered to be ready to leave harbour on 24 hour notice, from the following Monday. On Monday 17th, all crew had reported on board and we took on board the Mobile Surgery Team, with all the material and 25 people, among them 7 doctors and 3 surgeons". Within 48 hours, the construction site which started 2 weeks earlier gave way to a perfectly operational vessel, with all diesel and aviation fuel on board, as well as food for 600 people sufficient to last for 45 days. In parallel, 650 soldiers and 85 vehicles, including 5 AMX 10 RC tanks and about 20 Armoured Vehicles (which left from Le Mans on the same Monday) were loaded. The ship cargo was completed by 4 Puma and Gazelle helicopters, as well as 2 Cougar helicopters. To solve a problem encountered by the Mistral suffering from a fuel injection trouble on a diesel alternator, a pump from the sister-ship Tonnerre was quickly installed on board, whilst transmission material was set up and gave an effective satellite communications capability. "We left harbour on 19 July, and on the following day we already used the ship to her full potential". While in transit off the cost of Crete, the Mistral received 2 more Cougar EC 725. These helicopters, which had never landed on a ship at sea, had no difficulty landing on the 5200 m² bridge. Refuelled within 45 minutes, they quickly took off with their commandos, with the mission to survey the field and secure the evacuation of the French nationals and bi-nationals in Lebanon.
Up to 4000 people on board
During the 4-day-cruise between Toulon and the Lebanese coast, the staff of the Mistral considered the best way to use the BPC: "There were uncertainties as to how the situation would evolve. We knew that 12000 civilians had to be evacuated immediately. We had therefore to plan and prepare the space to receive them on board. Without cargo, we had calculated that we could take 4000 people on board for an 8 hour trip, with only sandwiches to be distributed. Taking into account the troops we had already on board (a company of the 2nd RIMA , a detachment of Engineers and their material), we could only take 1500 people, which was already a lot", Captain Jubelin explained. "To win some space, I had the vehicles moved to the upper bridge in order to leave the lower bridge vacant. Officially, the Mistral can embark 60 vehicles, but this number is fixed in accordance with the SOLAS standards, with a space of 80 cm between each vehicle. If we parked them closer, we could put 110 vehicles". This potential gain of space is also available for the helicopter hangar, which is 100 meter long. It is designed to receive 16 heavy helicopters, but it can actually house 35 Gazelle! The skipper of the Mistral eventually took the decision to fit the 700 beds (later 2200 additional inflatable mattresses) in the helicopter hangar and in the 5 gangways: "These very wide corridors enabled us to put 45 beds in each of them, while leaving a reasonable space between the beds and the walls. However, for security reasons, I left the opposite corridor vacant".
The spacious general arrangement assists people movement
To welcome hundreds of families in a hurry to leave the fighting zone is not an easy task: "this requires a lot of organisation, and in this respect, the wide spaces of the BPC were of great importance. In Beirut, we moored starboard side in order to use the side door which opens onto the quay, a nice advantage because it opens onto a space communicating with the dock and the hangars. We set there a desk to monitor the arrivals, a reception desk, a luggage desk and a medical desk. The idea was to make the arrival of the various nationals fluid and to avoid jamming. While people were coming on board, the big luggage were placed on elevating trolleys which took them through the upper vehicle hangar. Suitcases and bags were labelled and placed in areas usually dedicated to the troops’ belongings. It was so well organised that, as surprising as it may seem, we did not loose even one suitcase". Just like in a marshalling yard, the reception area enabled us to avoid long waiting queues, and the civilians were being dispatched on the ship as soon as they arrived. According to Frédéric Jubelin: "It is not possible to do this on a frigate. Even on a new LPA like the Sirocco, loaded with troops and vehicles, there is no such space". With her 199 meter long and her 21500 tonnes, the Mistral is an impressive vessel, a very high ship, where the flight deck is a meter higher than the one on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. In spite of this, the evacuated people did not seem to have any major orientation difficulties: “of course, there was always a sailor, a marine or a légionnaire close by to answer people's queries or guide them, but in addition, it is a ship easy to understand. Most of the activity occurs on 5 bridges; gangways are wide and one quickly understands how to reach the hangars and the canteen ".
"A permanent round about"
This canteen was of course much sought after. With 2200 people on board at the height of evacuation, it meant that in 24 hours, 6600 meals and breakfasts had to come out of the kitchens, derived from the sort of kitchens that are on cruise vessels but especially conceived to ensure a high output. To feed so many mouths, the supplies must nonetheless be regularly replenished. However, with the embargo imposed by Israel on Beirut harbour, the Mistral had but a few hours to embark the nationals, unload material and, eventually, replenish her food supplies: "I will remember a scene which illustrates the incredible capability of the ship. We were in Beirut and we had to welcome on board 1100 French nationals, as well as get food supplies and unload 450 pallets. To succeed in unloading this cargo in time, we utilised the air crane and Fenwick by the side entrance door and also the ammunition beam. Before arriving the pallets had been arranged as follows: 170 on the flight deck, 230 in the hole and 45 near the beam. Everything came out simultaneously, and, at the same time, I saw the supply officer loading his food supplies by the front of the ship! It is industrial and methodical. In summary, we were not mucking around". For Captain Jubelin, the BPC is like a "permanent round-about where action never stops. In Lebanon, we never stopped, between the loading of freight, the evacuation, the hospital, the helicopter movements and the amphibious manoeuvres".
A state-of-the art hospital
Initially, the deployment of the Mistral in the Western Mediterranean was motivated by her significant hospital capability. Spread on 850 m² with 69 beds, the infrastructure set on the BPC is similar to that of a town with 40 000 inhabitants. There is a marshalling room and a room for significant burn victims, as well as an X-ray room which can be equipped with a scanner and two operating theatres. For the first time on a ship, the transmission capabilities make it possible to operate with the assistance of a shore based expert, thanks to the remote help system. "The hospital revealed itself to be extremely useful as it was located in the centre of the ship. It is very well conceived with rooms allowing a permanent progressive movement, from the marshalling to the operating rooms. We used it a lot on one of the first rotations, when we embarked older people and handicapped people with restricted mobility. There were mostly taken care of by the hospital which has a direct access to the hangars and the flight deck through a lift. We were able to look after everyone without any delay", the former skipper of the Mistral rejoices. Beside the purely operational aspect, the crew, as well as the troops, had to deal with the trauma suffered by the families: "We had organised groups of 35 to 50 people. Our men looked after them, taking them from one end of the ship to the other, and organised activities to distract and to comfort them. Some of them were fine, but others, who had been subjected to the bombings for 15 days, needed to talk and above all to be listened to. Just being present and taking care of them was, I think, very beneficial for them".
The first experience of the embarked Command Centre
Since her arrival in Lebanon, the Mistral has been used as the flag ship for the French Defence forces deployed in the area. The ship has a large Command room, with a surface close to 1000 m², specially designed for allied and joint missions: “It is an ideal location where the Staff has an available surface as large as they would have ashore. We literally replicated onboard the headquarter offices of the NATO High Response Force (HRF) recently set up in Toulon. People can see each other, can move around, and therefore a continuous service is possible with tens of plugs where the equipment can be connected. On the 17th of July in the morning, the Command Room was empty, and since it started to work on the 22nd, I have not heard of it any longer. It was a full success right from the start.” The challenge was very important, because we had to connect and to combine together the information and communication systems of the Joint Staff, the Navy and the Army. A total of 150 operators position can be installed! The number of work stations will even be raised up to 250 to allow the BPC to include the embarked staff of NATO amphibious forces. The communication systems of the Alliance being different, the copper network has been doubled with a network of optical fibres, allowing to insure the security of the treatment of data between the various working stations. Next October, the Mistral will participate in an important exercise, called Brillant Midas, which will gather no less than 44 allied ships. Following this operation off the Provence region, the ship will be NATO certified. “Considering the experience now acquired, I am not worried about that”, Captain Jubelin replies with confidence. The officer recalls, as a proof of the interest of the embarked staff for his previous ship, that “ When we departed back for Toulon and the Command Centre had been transferred from the Mistral to the Sirocco, faces said it all…”.
“ We reached a stage”
Frédéric Jubelin is a specialist of amphibious questions. Former Commanding officer of the Ouragan, he has completed several missions with this Landing Ship Dock, particularly in Africa. He states: “ With the Mistral we clearly reached an important stage. It is the case for manoeuvres. Thanks to the pods, I have not needed to use tugs for the past 13 months. The smoothness of this system, with her propulsion jets, has been very useful for the twenty berthings we had to perform in narrow harbours, just like Beirut. To save time during the landing of nationals in Larnaca, we had to use the dynamic positioning system, which allows the ship to use her propulsion to keep at a fixed position. Stationed at 1500 meters from the coast, I ordered to water the dock and to use two Landing Crafts for the rotations. Everything worked like clockwork. While one was loading, the other was crossing.” Despite the fact that a group of civilians, with women, children, infants, with luggage and even prams, is not as easy to manage as the disciplined and trained soldiers, “During the third rotation, it only took us 3 hours to complete the landing of 1400 people”. The BPC has had her baptism in pure amphibious operations supplying the UNIFIL in Nakoura: “The vehicles were loaded on the Landing Crafts. Apparently there is no difference with the LPA, but when an increase of power is needed and that we have only 45 minutes for the landing of troops and helicopters, the BPC shows all her skills. The amphibious characteristic, with an Ouragan is sub-sequential. We send an helicopter, we wait 2 minutes, then we send a Landing Craft, then another helicopter after 2 minutes and so on... From now on, we can proceed simultaneously without interference in using all our capabilities”. The Air operations have improved considerably on both quality and quantity scales: “ We do not have to wait to launch an assault with helicopters. Thanks to the rear lift, we can deploy the blades before the arrival of the machine on flight deck, which saves precious minutes. On the other hand, the large size of the ship allows us to prepare for six helicopters with 70 to 90 guys with their weapons and their luggage on the deck 6’s gangway (one level down from the flight deck). During exercises, we calculated that it took them 1 minute and 45 seconds to get on the deck, 3 minutes to climb in the helicopters and less than 5 minutes to have everyone in the air. It is really impressive.”
The youth flaws
Being the first of her class, the Mistral has therefore not escaped from the usual difficulties, notably on the combat system. Following these difficulties, the ship has been delivered to the Navy eight months late. “ The required performance was not at the level required, considering that the ship has been designed for a limited crew of 160 people (vs. 220 for the Sirocco which is half as big). If ordered, we could have sailed with only 60 people, which was the number we had during the trials. The combat system has been designed in this direction. We would like to have just one operator handling the data coming from the tri-dimensional radar.” Captain Jubelin thinks that “ It would have been unseemly if everything worked from day one on. The most important thing is that the problems do not outweigh the ship’s skills”. Baliste Operation has reassured the crew on this matter: “When F16 and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles flying over you every day can be detected, it is clear that radars work. After a month of in operations, we acquired a lot of know-how and we are less concerned”. If the detection system has revealed her efficiency off the Lebanese coasts, the work on the combat system is not yet completed. In order to meet all the criteria drafted in the contract, DCN continues its work on the Communication System, the reduction of the number of operators handling the MRR 3-D search radar, but also on the multi-sensors tracking. This system, that links the information of the MRR with the navigation radars, is extremely hard to tune. All three equipments work on different frequency ranges and each one has a specific way to extract the contacts. From the recent experience in the last months, other elements may need to be modified, like the stem propeller, which was not felt as powerful enough. Finally, like her sister-ship the Tonnerre, the Mistral is experiencing floor troubles. Linoleum floors are coming unstuck in living areas: “We are trying to find out the exact cause of the problem, but we are certain that the concept of the ship is good and that the choice of the materials is not questionable”.
Soldiers happy with the life standards on board
Despite some floors covering coming unstuck and waiting for fixing, Army troops could enjoy, for the first time in operation times, the BPC comforts. The front part, which shelters the dwelling, has been designed by the Chantiers de l’Atlantique and has taken inspiration of methods used in the civil maritime construction. The marines, who are used to the very simple life on board the LPA, has discovered another world: “The men from the 2nd RIMA just crossed the country with their equipment when we left harbour. They were happy to find decent rooms and a modern comfort. There has been a number of positive reactions. They reckon this is a real step forward. The Mistral is equipped with 4 beds cabins, even when they were crammed together everywhere on the Ouragan. “ It is true that the conditions were precarious, actually the guys would rather be staying ashore than come on board. There was no need to organise a wake-up system and give them some rest because we knew they would hardly sleep at night. On the Mistral, it is completely different. They have their own cabins with bathrooms and showers. We knew they would have slept well, in a cool and comfortable area.” Despite the promiscuous life aboard of LPA, Frédéric Jubelin does not recall any bad mood. “ The soldiers are trained to live in difficult conditions and they know that on board ships we have similar conditions. They get used to anything but, by providing them with decent living conditions, as well as meeting rooms and easier connexions on the communication systems, everything gets easier”.
Vincent Groizeleau _____________________________________________
DCN is the prime contractor for the design and construction of the BPC (Translation Note).
RIMA: Régiment d’infanterie de marine (Marine Regiment).
Yup, zee nouveau warp drive in zee retreat setting is formidable!
Are you sure it is French? I don't see any white flags aloft or floating wine bottles.
6600 meals in 24 hours. Well, the French DO know how to cook....I'll give 'em that.
French ... amphibious ...
*nevermind*
Ship's codename: Frog 1
Whether it's got white flags or not,it's one of the 2 designs being considered by the Royal Australian Navy for building amphibious assault ships.
I don't think it is very practical though because I heard the engines only go in reverse :-)
Thanks for posting!
True, but you can see that the bow of the ship is flattened where they must have repeatedly run it into other ships and docks.
Hey, the propeller hasn't fallen off .... that's progress in the Frog Navy.
Wow, same jokes on every thread..they get old after 60 or so years... anyway, it was a wonderful ship, i was one of the people evacuated on it. And bless the soldiers, they were there every step of the way doing everything to make us feel more comfortable.
Evacuated from where? Lebanon?
yes, from lebanon to cyprus, a 15 hour stay over there in a gymnasium which was used as a resting place for us, then a plane to paris.
Then i went and got a ticket to canada(montreal).
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