Joint support ship
It can also provide command and control, sealift and seabasing, underway replenishment, disaster relief and logistics capabilities for combined land and sea operations.
[2][3] With their multi-role capabilities, these vessels have also proven extremely useful in civil emergencies, providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief at times of natural disasters, and for peace-keeping duties providing logistical support for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and this capability is often factored into tender requirements during procurement processes (and which can be helpful at justifying the need for these vessels to politicians).
The vessel has the following design features:[20] In November 2014, despite the fact the vessel had only recently completed sea trials but not yet commissioned, it was sent on a three-month deployment to West Africa as part of the European Union's response to an Ebola outbreak, where it delivered ambulances, portable hospitals and medical supplies to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
[22] In July 2020 the Australian government published its 2020 Force Structure Plan and 2020 Defence Strategic Update announcing its intention to procure two locally-built two multi-purpose auxiliary vessels able to perform both sealift and replenishment operations under project SEA2200, to replace the Royal Australian Navy's current landing ship dock (LSD) HMAS Choules.
Specific features include:[25] In May 2022 the BMT Group, the company that upgraded HMAS Choules when it was acquired from the Royal Navy, displayed their Ellida design at INDO PACIFIC 2022.
Specifically, the German navy was to have the capability to transport a small peacekeeping contingent with the vessel(s) also serving in the role of mission command and coordination.
[28] The German Navy (Deutsche Marine), the smallest branch of the country's armed forces, was ill-equipped for these new requirements, and commenced plans to commission a suitable vessel.
The proposed vessel would feature:[28] However, the high cost of the proposed vessel caused alarm among certain members of the Bundestag, the country's parliament, and in March 1995 the Chairman of the Defence Committee, Klaus Rose, argued against its acquisition and in May 1995 the Minister of Defence, Volker Rühe announced the project was to be stopped.
[28] The navy persisted that the vessel was required and in 1998 the Weizsäcker-commission was formed, which advised the government of the need for a "transport and deployment support ship".
This resulted in Einsatz Truppenunterstützungsschiff (Multi purpose Carrier) specifying an even larger ship with a displacement of 18,000 tonnes, possibly based upon Navantia's Galicia class.
The plan was later updated to also include another multi-purpose ship, a Multi-role Helicopter Dock Expeditionary Support vessel of a modular design that could be reconfigured for various mission profiles and which would also be utilised for a future JSS class.
[28][30] As a cost-saving measure, in 2016 the German Minister of Defence signed an agreement with their Dutch counterpart to share the NLMS Karel Doorman, the JSS under construction for Royal Netherlands Navy.
While these ships are technically LHDs they are a multi-role vessel that will undertake a similar range of duties as a JSS including:[32] In September 2021 the Malaysian Minister of Defence announced that his country's government would procure two a multi-role support ships (MRSS), vessels very similar in specification to a JSS, for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN).
The vessels would enhance the RMN's strategic sealift capabilities between Peninsular Malaysia and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
[33] The nature of the MRSS requirements leads towards a smaller version of existing amphibious assault vessels currently available from multiple international shipbuilders, including the French Mistral-class and the Chinese Type 075 landing helicopter docks (LHDs), and Dutch Enforcer-class and Indonesian Makassar-class landing platform docks (LPDs).
[33] The USN operates the world's largest fleet of amphibious assault vessels (AAV) with a number of different classes of ships of various sizes and capabilities that can fulfil a wide range of roles.
However, question marks exist surrounding their remaining scheduled operating lifespan, with the navy facing budget cutbacks and placing a greater emphasis on common capital infrastructure (i.e. weapons systems, power plants, etc.)
[35][36][37] The San Antonio-class LPD is the USN's most numerous AAV with 12 ships currently in service[b] as of December 2022 and with three further vessels under construction and another on order.
[40][41][42] In recent years the USN has put greater emphasis upon the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV), and the San Antonio class makes an excellent candidate as an operations platform, and since 2013 the RQ-21 Blackjack, launched from a portable catapult, has been operated from several ships in this class including USS San Antonio and USS Mesa Verde.
The NGLS program would instead deliver a new class of smaller ships that would be less expensive and faster to construct yet meet the requirements for refuelling, rearming and resupply operations.
Furthermore, the flex deck can support a containerized hospital or simply transport a number of ISO standard containers or some 55 vehicles, including up to seven main battle tanks.
