Projects: Replacements sought for LCH workhorses | ADM June 2011

Tom Muir | Canberra

But for the six Balikpapan Class LCHs, this country boasts an amphibious fleet whose capability for land force maritime manoeuvre is downright parlous.

With sealift limited to one 8,500 tonne amphibious transport (LPA) that won’t be available until mid-next year and one 5,800 tonne heavy landing ship (LSH) with known mechanical problems, this sorry state was enough to raise the defence minister’s ire earlier this year when he addressed the Australian Defence Magazine Congress in February.

But all is not doom and gloom. the hull of the first of the two 27,000 tonne Spanish LHDs ordered from Navantia is in the water and following discussions (we suspect earnest ones) with UK defence secretary Liam Fox, defence minister Stephen Smith was later able to announce that Australia’s bid to purchase the 16,000 tonne ex-RN ship Largs Bay had been approved and that it has now passed sea trials showing it to be in good material shape.

Perhaps we may now see something of an interim amphibious capability looming with Kanimbla back in service in 12 months or so, Tobruk hopefully fixed, now joined by the 16,000 tonne Largs Bay, available for RAN service about that time. Augmented by charter of the Aurora Australis and an agreement with NZ regarding amphibious lift ship HMNZS Canterbury during Tobruk’s next maintenance period and possibly a fast catamaran like the Tasmanian-built Jervis Bay, such a capability should prove useful in working up crews and ship systems ahead of the introduction of the two LHDs around 2016.

And while the situation with the non-availability of the larger transports has drawn such heavy condemnation, none of this applies to the Navy’s fleet of Balikpapan Class LCHs. The LCH is an extremely important vessel, capable of moving large amounts of cargo, personnel and equipment from larger ships to shore. A very shallow draft allows these ships to deliver troops and equipment to areas otherwise unreachable.

Now these sturdy vessels which underwent life extension refits under a mid¬1999 contract with tropical Reef are to be replaced. to that end in January 2011 Defence released a Request for information(RFI), seeking proposals from industry for new Heavy Landing Craft under JP 2048 Phase 5.

According to the Defence Capability Plan JP2048 Phase 5 will acquire six new heavy landing craft with improved ocean going capabilities able to transport armoured vehicles, trucks, stores and people. The primary mission of the LCH system is to provide operational (intra-theatre) and tactical amphibious mobility. This may be as an independent minor Amphibious Task Unit or as part of an Amphibious Task Group with the new LHDs and/or other LCHs. It must be able to perform its full mission capabilities within the operating environment of Australia and the immediate neighbourhood.

Thus the LCH(R) will transit across open oceans and operate in confined archipelagic and littoral environments and in rivers and estuarine deltas. Regional seas in transit exceed Sea State Four for approximately 60% of the year and commonly have a long swell.

Regional coastlines tend to extremes; steep beach gradients promoting plunging surf and longshore currents or flat gradients with large tidal ranges, resulting in fast tides. Only about one quarter of regional beaches have gradients compatible with conventional large landing craft and many of these are steep enough to promote heavy surf. Two thirds are too flat for conventional landing craft. Furthermore, fringing reefs are prevalent in the archipelago and around Australia.

While the LCH system operating concept shields it from direct attack by conventional forces, it should be capable of operating in the face of low-medium level threats such as might be expected from competent irregular forces. The conflicting requirements of landing in these varied environments have the potential for an integrated ‘system of systems’ approach.

The LCH has no specific secondary mission but will be suitable for a wide range of utility tasks. These may include hosting a range of other Defence capabilities such as Rapid Environmental Assessment and Mine Countermeasures and supporting ADF training activities.

It would be safe to assume that the LCH replacements would need an increased load capacity to take a minimum of three of the Army’s M1A1 tanks (the Balikpapan Class LCHs are too narrow) or their load equivalent. Some observers suggest they would also need space to operate a helicopter and the means to store, launch and recover unmanned aerial systems. Due to the many missions calling for humanitarian and other assistance in their area of operations the replacements would need to have surgical rather than hospital facilities. Speed and seakeeping qualities would need to be improved for quick response times to natural disasters.

Through the RFI process, Defence was hoping for innovative solutions and options to satisfy the JP 2048 Phase 5 capability requirement together with indicative costing and schedule information to enable assessment of their relative merits and feasibility.

However, it would seem that Defence is in no hurry to replace the present LCHs, all six of which were commissioned during1973-74 and are thus approaching 40 years in service. First pass approval is anticipated between 2012-13 and 2014-15 and Year of Decision sometime in the period 2015-16 and 2017-18, with a planned initial operating capability beyond 2019. So what ship designs are we likely to see proposed as replacements for the Balikpapan Class LCHs? No doubt there have been responses to the LCH RFI from the likes of Navantia, BAE Systems, Thales, ASC, Austal and many others however the following innovative designs caught ADM’s eye.

Sea Transport Solutions SLV

One interesting design that has been proposed for the LCH Replacement is Sea Transport Solution’s 50m military SLV (stern landing vessel). Adapted from successful commercial craft working in remote areas under difficult conditions, Sea Transport Solutions’ Stuart Ballantyne says the company offers simple workable solutions for the military tasks of the 21st century. The patented SLV was a result of focussing on possible answers to the operational problems of conventional landing craft. He says the problems with conventional landing craft include:

• Bad head sea capability
• Poor stability
• Poor visibility
• Poor debeaching
• Excessive noise and vibration with wheelhouse above machinery
• Ballast is required

According to Ballantyne, the proven successful solution to the landing craft was the Stern Landing Vessel. The triple screw, twin skeg hull form is the most viable answer for the amphibious support craft to succeed in the military’s operational envelope. Sea Transport Solutions can and have successfully transformed commercial designs into a flexible and fully functioned naval platform, which can be integrated easily into existing naval operations. Designed to commercial or naval rules, SLV’s can be built by any shipyard able to construct commercial vessels to Class Rule standards.

The Sea Transport Group is an international design, engineering and marine consultancy group, working principally in the maritime transport and ports and logistics sectors. Sea Transport Solutions is Australia’s largest independent naval architecture group, with expertise in platform design for support craft of all sizes and types. A wide rage of government and industry customers engaged in the development of technically complex, highly integrated systems rely on Sea Transport services for its systems engineering and information systems expertise.

Based in South East Queensland, the company has two offices there and another in London. It employs over 30 naval architects, marine engineers, engineering consultants and support staff.

BMT Fast LCT Caimen-200

Caimen-200 is BMT’s design for a fast Landing Craft Tank (LCT) capable of achieving a transit speed of more than 16 knots fully laden with up to three main battle tanks (MBT). By almost doubling the speed with which assault waves are transported to the beach, employment of the LCT Caimen-200 enables more weight and firepower of amphibious forces to be deployed in a shorter time. That means greater military effect achieved for the same resources deployed.

Almost 80 per cent faster than traditional LCTs, Caimen-200 marks a step-change in LCT design, technology, performance and capability. Whether it is required for a major amphibious assault in difficult conditions, humanitarian aid or disaster relief, Caimen-200 is designed to provide a low-cost and low-risk way of achieving a higher rate of logistics flow with the same number of platforms.

Caimen-200’s sleeker hull form helps to give the design a top speed of over 16 knots, far faster than the nine knot average attained by traditional, fully flat-bottomed LCTs. In addition to speed, Caimen¬200’s advanced design gives her enhanced sea-keeping characteristics compared with similar vessels while retaining strength and durability.

The company says that sidestepping conventional thinking to solve operational problems is one of BMT’s strengths and a lot of time is spent researching problems and testing new technologies.

The evolution of navies’ requirements and the standards and regulatory frameworks influencing the design of naval vessels is closely studied and recently, this has included naval replenishment vessels, amphibious warfare ships and submarines leading to the development of the Aegir family of auxiliary vessels, the Vidar- 36 ocean going conventional powered submarine and Venator -a single role, but reconfigurable, vessel to replace a range of minor warship types. Caimen-200 now adds to this impressive pedigree.

It is intended that Caimen will become code for a family of ingenious, highly capable and economical landing craft vessels with variants suited to different payload requirements or for where the cost of ownership may be a higher priority than speed.

CNIM L-Cat Landing Craft

Patented by CNIM and developed using its own funds, the L-CAT (Landing Catamaran) is a totally innovative ship based on the integration of a mobile loading platform into the hull of a catamaran. In its raised position, the L-CAT is a catamaran that is transformed into a flat bottom ship by deploying its platform in the lowered position, for the purposes of unloading on any beach in the absence of port facilities.

It is intended for the landing of troops, vehicles and equipment from the amphibious ships used by the French Navy (BPC and TCD). Thirty meters long and 12 meters wide, it can carry a maximum payload of 80 tonnes at a speed of approximately 18 knots, while the empty speed is 25 knots.

The L-Cat catamaran landing craft’s main characteristics include:

• Speed (empty) of 30 knots
• Speed (fully loaded) of 20 knots
• Range at 15 knots of 1,000 nm
• Landing: beach gradient ≤two per cent, wharf ≤1 metre
• Fore draft fully loaded 0.60 metre
• Deadweight overload 130 tonnes
• Compatible with any NATO standard well deck up to sea state 4
• Mobile platform dimensions: length 23 metres, width 6.9 metres

L-CAT 100 can operate out of any modern LPD and provides unmatched throughput in landing operations. Its payload represents typically an infantry or border guard section, depending on user’s inventory.