HMAS Canberra complete!

but where is the tree?

bobzed57 said :

LSWCHP said :

chewy14 said :

Cool

We have our own aircraft carrier now.

Well, no. She actually has the ungainly title of Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD). She’s designed to carry choppers, armour and infantry to perform land based power projection, rather than providing air power projection like a carrier. I believe the original idea comes from the US Iwo Jima class amphibious assault ships built for the Marines.

On the other other hand, i suppose there’s the possibility of bunging a few JSF on her at some stage, if they ever make the scene.

While the letters LHD are correct, the term Landing Helicopter Dock was made up by the LHD project’s first program manager. LHD under NATO means Amphibious Assault Ship Dock and at the time of first pass to government he was concerned the term Amphibious Assault Ship might not play well politically, so it became Landing Helicopter Dock.

I’ll admit that they’re amphibious assault ships, but the term LHD isn’t simply a meaningless acronym. It stands for Landing Helicopter Dock, and has done so for quite a while in domains outside DMO. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp-class_amphibious_assault_ship, which is a reference to one of the US LHD’s that JB mentioned earlier. She is described therein as a Landing Helicopter Dock amphibious assault ship.

inside_info said :

Looks kind of weird with cranes attached to its sides. I assume they’re used to load tanks and other heavy vehicles?

She is still in dock.

Have a look at the Juan Carlos for an idea what ours will look like finished:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juan_Carlos_I_(L-61)

Looks kind of weird with cranes attached to its sides. I assume they’re used to load tanks and other heavy vehicles?

LSWCHP said :

chewy14 said :

Cool

We have our own aircraft carrier now.

Well, no. She actually has the ungainly title of Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD). She’s designed to carry choppers, armour and infantry to perform land based power projection, rather than providing air power projection like a carrier. I believe the original idea comes from the US Iwo Jima class amphibious assault ships built for the Marines.

On the other other hand, i suppose there’s the possibility of bunging a few JSF on her at some stage, if they ever make the scene.

While the letters LHD are correct, the term Landing Helicopter Dock was made up by the LHD project’s first program manager. LHD under NATO means Amphibious Assault Ship Dock and at the time of first pass to government he was concerned the term Amphibious Assault Ship might not play well politically, so it became Landing Helicopter Dock. That said, in some recent articles I’ve seen it referred to as an amphibious assault ship. Good times for Navy, with lots of support from the Army and RAAF.

Really she’s a sea control ship (aircraft carrier) with a troop carrying emphasis.

The Spanish bought the sea control design from the americans, built the Principe de Asturias and then evolved the concept in to the Juan Carlos, which is what we’ve bought.

The Juan Carlos is on wikipedia’s big list of aircraft carriers

The US Wasp/America class is very much a dual purpose aircraft carrer / landing ship too.

There’s an excellent US staff paper on the subject from 1990 if you’re interested in the evolution of the concept.

But until we buy f35b’s better to concentrate on what we could do with a helicopter wing of 30.

With an Air Warfare Destroyer keeping the fast movers at bay those helos can do a very great deal.

One thing we desperately need is the Brits Crowsnest system. It’s palletised Airborne Early Warning so a couple of units can be switched between available helicopters and provide continuous coverage without needing dedicated units filling up the hangar doing nothing else useful.

chewy14 said :

Cool

We have our own aircraft carrier now.

Well, no. She actually has the ungainly title of Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD). She’s designed to carry choppers, armour and infantry to perform land based power projection, rather than providing air power projection like a carrier. I believe the original idea comes from the US Iwo Jima class amphibious assault ships built for the Marines.

On the other other hand, i suppose there’s the possibility of bunging a few JSF on her at some stage, if they ever make the scene.

johnboy said :

LSWCHP said :

I sincerely hope that she has a long and distinguished career, serves the nation well, provides a safe home for her crew, and never has to fire a shot in anger.

But if push comes to shove a taskforce of this thing weighed down with AEW and ASW choppers, an AWD, two or three Anzac frigates and some lurking Collins boats will be a force no force on earth aside from the United States Navy could dislodge.

Better to have than not if things get unpleasant.

For sure – Si vis pacem, para bellum. But if she has to flex her muscles, someone somewhere is going to get hurt.

Cool

We have our own aircraft carrier now.

Imagine these beasts with some nuclear powered subs underneath.

Felling rigid.

johnboy said :

some lurking Collins boats

You’re more likely to win the lottery than have more than one Collins working at the same time.

LSWCHP said :

I sincerely hope that she has a long and distinguished career, serves the nation well, provides a safe home for her crew, and never has to fire a shot in anger.

But if push comes to shove a taskforce of this thing weighed down with AEW and ASW choppers, an AWD, two or three Anzac frigates and some lurking Collins boats will be a force no force on earth aside from the United States Navy could dislodge.

Better to have than not if things get unpleasant.

An honour indeed.

I sincerely hope that she has a long and distinguished career, serves the nation well, provides a safe home for her crew, and never has to fire a shot in anger.