UK unveils new LSD(A)

The Royal Navy unveiled its latest amphibious Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliary), the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ?Largs Bay?, which is undergoing sea trails prior to entering service later this year. This state-of-the-art 16,000 tonne landing ship is more than twice the size of her predecessors. At 177 metres long, she can carry two Chinook helicopters as deck cargo whilst operating a third from her flight deck.

Specially designed to deliver vehicles, troops and equipment ashore ? even when there are no harbours available – she can travel up to 8,000 miles at 15 knots and can accelerate to speeds around 17 Knots. Her large storage decks are able to carry 32 Challenger II Main Battle Tanks as well as over 350 fully armed troops, landing craft

and supporting stores.

With no rudders, the new vessel manoeuvres with azimuthing propulsors and bow thrusters to help give increased stability during operations. The advanced design of the LSD(A)s will enable the vessel to offload/onload at sea in conditions up to Sea State three, without the need to anchor adding to her flexibility. Although capable of delivering armed forces into war fighting operations, these ships are also ideally suited to low intensity operations; such as providing a platform for peace support operations, as in Sierra Leone, or in humanitarian and disaster relief missions such as the Tsunami relief effort.

The introduction into service of the Bay Class ships marks the completion of the programme to replace the UK’s amphibious shipping and represent a major uplift in the Royal Navy’s war fighting capability.