On the bridge wing of the navy's
newest and biggest ever warship, HMAS Canberra, the vast scale of the
amphibious assault ship is dramatic and stark.
With Melbourne city silhouetted across a shimmering Port Phillip
Bay, the ship's expansive 32-metre wide flight deck stretches for 203
metres as pleasure yachts bob at their moorings more than 30 metres
below.
Such is the sheer size of HMAS Canberra that the antennae
on top of the ship's stern mast will touch the deck of the Sydney
Harbour Bridge.
This Canberra is known as a Landing Helicopter
Dock (LHD) and she dwarfs anything else in the Royal Australian Navy
fleet. She is the first of a $3 billion two-ship build. The second, HMAS
Adelaide, will arrive early next year.
It is Australian
engineering and technical expertise at the BAE Systems' Williamstown
shipyard that is putting the finishing touches on vessels that will
alter the nation's power projection capabilities forever.
Navy Captain Craig Bourke is a fierce advocate for a project that he manages on behalf of taxpayers via his job with the Defence Materiel Organisation.
Given
past problems with central keel blocks for the new Air Warfare
Destroyers built at the facility, the gaggle of nervous BAE executives
following along is understandable, but there is no aspect of the LHD
project that Captain Bourke leaves untouched.
From the unique and
precise welding systems employed to construct the seven superstructure
modules and the exact tolerances employed to ensure that all 112 modules
from around the nation and around the globe fit together senselessly,
to the quality of the accommodation for "embarked forces" and the
high-tech ovens in the ship's bakery, this is a project manager who
knows his stuff.
The first Commanding
Officer of HMAS Canberra is Captain Jonathan Sadleir. The former
Canadian officer has 27 years experience including 12 in the Canadian
Navy. His last command job was driving the 3600-tonne Anzac frigate HMAS
Parramatta.
As he surveys Port Phillip Bay from what will soon
become his new office, dodging some of the 760km of cables being
installed in the ship and the technicians doing the work, Captain
Sadleir describes his new role as "humbling, but hugely exciting".
However,
the excitement of commanding a ship more than eight times the size of
his previous vessel is tempered by the responsibility of being the first
CO of his adopted country's biggest ever warship and her 360-strong
crew. For the first time a ship's crew will include up to 60 army and
air force personnel, as well as 300 sailors.
Captain Sadleir says that having the levers of the nation's first truly global military capability is a huge honour.
"This
is an amazing self-sufficient capability, but our biggest challenge
will be understanding just what we can do with it," he says.
Navy
doctrine will change significantly with the arrival of the two LHDs and
three Adelaide-built Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers, the most
lethal warships ever to serve in the RAN.
The two amphibious
assault ships and the AWDs will be home ported at Garden Island in
Sydney, but the big ships will spend a great deal of time operating with
the 2nd Battalion Royal Australian regiment out of Townsville or
representing the nation around the region or the world.
Being able to carry up to 1600 fully equipped combat troops (1000
comfortably), 110 trucks and vehicles and up to a dozen Abrams main
battle tanks, not to mention 16 helicopters including Chinook heavy lift
machines and Tiger attack helicopters and thousands of tonnes of
humanitarian aid, gives the government previously unimaginable power
projection capability.
Like all crew members, Captain Sadleir and
Chief Engineer Commander Dave Walter have spent a lot of time training
on simulators at HMAS Watson and at Mascot in Sydney learning how to
operate the vessel. Simulation technology has become so refined that
sailors can virtually step out of the land-based sim, on to the ship and
start working.
In terms of capability and technology, the
Canberra represents a quantum leap for the RAN. For example she has
65,000 control and monitoring points compared to just 1500 on an Anzac
frigate and the vessel is fitted with more water tight doors than the
entire eight-ship Anzac frigate fleet combined.
The hull and
vehicle, aircraft, flight and accommodation decks and machinery spaces
were all built in Spain, but the four modules that contain the "brains"
of the ship were constructed in Newcastle, Perth and at Williamstown
where they are being installed at BAE's shipyard.
This includes the bridge, operations rooms including the deployable
joint force headquarters, command and control rooms, communications and
combat systems. All the sensitive areas of the ship are encased in 25mm
thick ballistic steel and the bridge is built from the same alloy used
to protect the Abrams main battle tank.
Wherever soldiers will be
moving around the ship passageways are extra wide with built in slides
for packs to be moved between decks. The light vehicle deck, where
Bushmaster infantry vehicles, light trucks and Land Rovers will be
stored covers a massive 2400 square metres and can handle a maximum load
of 611 tonnes. It includes workshop facilities on each side that will
enable virtually any maintenance task to be undertaken in-house.
Vehicles
can be moved between decks via a ramp on the port (left) side or a
light vehicle elevator. There are also two aircraft elevators, two
personnel elevators, an ammunition elevator and a hospital elevator
running between the decks.
Between the light vehicle and heavy
vehicle decks are the accommodation, recreation and living spaces as
well as the 40-bed hospital fitted with two operating theatres,
intensive care unit and X-ray room as well as mess decks, galleys and
office spaces.
There are two internet cafes and two gyms and all recreation areas
are equipped with satellite TV, internet and projectors and CCTV so they
can double as briefing rooms.
The state-of-the-art central galley
is huge and includes a bakery section to bake bread for 1500 people a
day. Up to 25 chefs will work around the clock to dish up a maximum of
6000 meals a day using equipment that can cook 400 chicken breasts at
once as well as enough meat sauce to feed 300 people.
The fourth
deck down on the ship is the heavy-vehicle deck that covers 1400 square
metres and can accommodate 196 shipping containers and a maximum load of
1524 tonnes. It is located forward of a 70m by 17m welldock that is
flooded to allow four 24m-long landing craft and other boats to operate
inside the ship.
The welldock, landing craft and helicopters mean
that all troops, equipment and supplies can be landed without wharves or
docking facilities.
The ship's gas turbine generator produces
19.5 megawatts of electricity and two diesel generators seven megawatts
each, which is enough to power a city the size of Darwin.
The key
challenge for Captain Bourke and the BAE Systems project team headed by
Marcos Alfonso, will be a successful program of sea trials this spring
followed by a seamless delivery to the Chief of Navy, Vice-Admiral Ray
Griggs, before March 2014.
"We can do it provided we keep focused and stay on the ball and work together," Captain Bourke said.
* Amphibious assault ships
* 27,800 tonnes
* 230 metres long
* 32 metres wide
* 202 metre flight deck 28 metres above water
* 360 crew and up to 1600 troops
* 100 vehicles and 12 tanks
* 4 X 24 metre landing craft
* Internal well dock to load and unload craft
* 16 helicopters, six operating at once
* 40-bed hospital and two operating rooms
* Maximum speed above 20 knots (35km/hr)
HISTORY OF A NAME
The
navy's biggest ever vessel will be third Royal Australian Navy ship to
carry the name HMAS Canberra in honour of the national capital.
The
first HMAS Canberra was a Kent Class heavy cruiser sunk by Japanese
forces during the Battle of Savo Island in the dark days of WW2 in
August 1942.
The following year the United States Navy
commissioned the only ever ship to bear the name of a foreign capital
city when the heavy cruiser USS Canberra was launched.
The second HMAS Canberra was an American built Adelaide Class guided missile frigate that served for 27 years from 1978 to 2005.
The
ship became the first FFG to be decommissioned and she was scuttled off
the Victorian coast in October 2009 to become a dive wreck.
The latest and biggest HMAS Canberra is due to be accepted into navy service by March 2014.
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