Defence Business: LHD 101 - using our capability | ADM Apr 08

1 April 2008

By Julian Kerr

Years before the first of the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) two Canberra-class amphibious landing ships (LHD) are commissioned, a four-strong group of RAN and Army officers has been amassing the knowledge needed to best deploy and operate the potent capability that the 27,000 tonne vessels will bring to the ADF.

The Joint Amphibious Capability Implementation Team (JACIT), officially established in September 2006, reports to and operates from the office of Captain Tony O'Malley RAN, director of Navy Force Structure and Warfare.

Consisting of a Commander, Lieutenant-Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel and a Major, the team's responsibility is the introduction into service of the Amphibious Deployment and Sustainment System, including the LHDs, and their in-service employment.

JACIT maintains a close interface with project steering groups and feeds into a joint amphibious steering group that is largely composed of one-star officers, and their representatives, who have a stake in the capability.

This group includes aviation capability managers, Captain O'Malley, and Army's Director of Force Structure.

The top decision-making body, the Amphibious Council, is composed of the Deputy Chiefs of Navy and Army and the Deputy Commander of Joint Operations.

At present JACIT is largely concentrating on what Captain O'Malley describes as "planning the plan."

"Understanding what it is that needs to be done, conceptualising the problem, articulating that, and gaining a common understanding among all the stakeholders of what part they have to play in this whole project of acquisition, introduction to service, and then the in-service employment from an operational perspective."

Although the implementation group is drawing heavily on the expertise of friends and allies, particularly that of the US Navy and the Royal Navy, Captain O'Malley points out that the depth of amphibious experience already resident in the RAN means that the development of operational doctrine is proceeding more by way of evolution than revolution.

"In essence, we're trying to track how we do business moving from what was largely a sea transport role to that of expeditionary warfare."

"By expeditionary warfare I'm not just talking about amphibious assault but everything ranging from humanitarian assistance and assisted evacuation to that high-end warfighting."

Planning
One of the key outcomes for JACIT is identifying the gap between where the ADF is now and where it wants to be in terms of individual and collective training, the transition from the current fleet both in the personnel and technical sectors, and the flow-on activities that emerge from that.

"The first ship will probably be delivered in 2013 and the second 18 months later, so we must have trained the people and have robust doctrine and concepts so that we can trial the ships, accept them into service and exploit them operationally."

"From my point of view, the greatest challenge to this evolution in our capability is going to be the collective training."

Lieutenant-Colonel Brian Hawke, a member of the JACIT team, points out the capabilities of the multi-spot deck operations aboard the new ships, but highlights the demands these will make.

"We in the ADF have not previously had the capacity to generate the sort of aviation element and collective lift ability the LHDs will provide - the simultaneous operation of six helicopter spots and the well dock.

"The well dock allows watercraft to actually enter into the stern and be loaded inside the ship.

"It's a magnificent capability; it allows us to do business at sea and underway without having to be in shallow water at any time.

"So far as aviation is concerned, we need to train everyone from aircraft handlers to a Commander Air, and in the short term we're really looking to our friends and allies for some of their expertise."

The British and the Americans are the world's best practice subject matter experts, although care would have to be taken on the extent to which their advice could be accepted, or needed adapting to what he describes as "the Australian way of war."

Although the ABCA (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) Armies' program was the principal area for capability development and compatibility of doctrine, the French and the Spanish performed to a similar scale and had useful experience and insights.

The Dutch were also comparable in scale and relevant, particularly since, with the UK Royal Marines, they form a NATO composite amphibious brigade.

For Army, amphibious training began with embarking and disembarking drills, and a robust foundation was already in place built on the capabilities of 3 Brigade in Townsville.

"We have to make sure we maintain that sort of joint collective training and increasingly we'll be looking to involve other parts of the army."

"The emphasis on protected mobility and firepower means that those things which weren't always resident in 3 Brigade will increasingly become part of the way the army seeks to do business."

"We'll be looking to group what's already in 3 Brigade with specialist element of 1 Brigade and potentially other forces as well."

Practice makes perfect
However, Army for the first time had to learn how to operate a well dock, probably utilising a number of medium-sized landing craft (type yet to be selected).

"Right now the plan is to have a centreline barrier so the watercraft can come in and out either side of the barrier without interfering with each other."

"The ship will be capable of operating its well dock to Sea State 4 and we can do that underway rather than having to come to anchor."

The acquisition of the 6,000 ton Landing Ship Heavy (LSH) HMAS Tobruk, and the two exUS Navy tank landing ships (LPS) HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora, refocused the ADF's attention on amphibious capabilities after a post-war hiatus.

All three ships were first used together in that role in Somalia in 1993 when they lodged the troops and vehicles of 1st Battalion RAR into Mogadishu and then supported them with shuttle runs between Mogadishu and Mombasa.

Since then the ships have supported humanitarian and military operations in East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

"Doctrinally, we certainly don't see ourselves conducting Iwo Jima-type landings, nor, I think, does any nation nowadays.

"One of the fundamentals of both land force and maritime doctrine is the concept of manoeuvre warfare", said Captain O'Malley.

"So clearly we'd be aiming to conduct any sort of amphibious assault in an area which is permissive or, at worst, potentially hostile.

"Doctrinally, the words are hostile but not opposed.

"Not opposed doesn't necessarily mean there's no-one there who is resisting us, but it's not heavily defended."

With a single LHD providing the capability currently achievable only by the entire existing amphibious fleet, the opportunity is open to adopt what Captain O'Malley describes as a more manoeuverist approach.

"At the moment we're only structured for trying to be able to conduct a landing on the beach whereas in future we're looking more at ship to objective manoeuvre and what the amphibious community calls distributed warfare, ie exploiting the weak points in your adversary."

"We're also looking much more at the seabasing approach.

"Rather than establish your significant logistic support at the beachhead, keep it as far as possible at sea."

Captain O'Malley confirms that planning revolves around the deployment of a combined arms battalion group similar to a US Marine Expeditionary Unit within a US Expeditionary Strike Group.

"Exactly how that battalion group would be structured is clearly dependant on the operation in train and the adversary at the destination", he comments.

Lt-Col Hawke points out there is a tendency when discussing amphibious operations to focus on the LHDs, when they are just one part of the whole so-called Amphibious Deployment and Sustainment (ADAS) system.

Working together
Another vital element of the system, in addition to landing craft and helicopters, is Phase 4C of Joint Project 2048, which is the acquisition of a strategic lift capability that will enable the ADF to transport bulk equipment, supplies and forces into a theatre of operations and provide significant ongoing support to deployed forces.

"This capability has yet to be defined, but it will have a role in the deployment and sustainment of the battlegroup", he says.

However, the LHDs themselves would bear the initial brunt of supporting any amphibious assault.

"For the first 10 days they really would be the support system in terms of ammunition, rations, fuels, medical support and aircraft maintenance", Captain O'Malley comments.

Commander Iain Jarvie, another JACIT member, says the group's principal link with the US is a high-level expeditionary warfare working group which allows for information-sharing and gives direct access to American doctrine and training institutions.

Although it only meets every six months, information is shared on a more regular basis.

A less formal relationship with Fleet Headquarters in the UK focusing on the littoral manoeuvre staff gave linkage into current and emerging operational concepts.

"We use that as an avenue to explore issues at a tactical level - how you might operate multi-spot aviation, how you train the person who's going to be Commander Air, how you do the same for well dock operation", he says.

Some exchange positions were also being reshaped to target aviation and dock operation.

A RAN Lieutenant-Commander was the plans officer for a US amphibious squadron in San Diego and provided a direct tactical translation for that position inside the Sydney-based Amphibious Task Group.

A Royal Marine was filling an exchange position at the ADF Warfare Centre, and the experience of a number of former Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel currently serving with Navy and Army was being leveraged.

Discussions had taken place with the Spanish Armada about the possibility of an Australian joining its Strategic Projection Ship, on which the Canberra class is based, but nothing had yet been agreed.

So far as Navy is concerned, nothing new is likely to be needed in terms of handling, although HMAS Sirius, at 25,000 tonnes, is the fleet's only other ship of comparable size.

"Draft isn't a huge issue with the LHDs, they only draw 7 metres and even if they add another metre through loading, it's still less than a frigate" Captain O'Malley says.

"During docking operations the draft can increase to 10m but this is just another navigation constraint to be taken into consideration.

"They're large, but they're largely full of air", he adds.

In high-end warfighting, a number of complex precursor operations would take place before an amphibious task group would be committed to an assault.

"Advanced force operations would include intelligence collection, mine countermeasures, hydrographic survey, oceanography and establishment of control of the sea and air by an Air Warfare Destroyer or another maritime warfare task group, including fast jet support."

"The amphibious task group would then be moved in under escort by an appropriately-sized surface and under-surface warfare group."

"The LHD is a high-value asset, not just the ship itself but because it would have aboard a significant component of Australia's land combat force."