Got to be said that PdA does look a touch gold-plated as an anti-pirate C3 platform. The French are supposedly disposing of the Siroco shortly and seeing that her sister is quoted as costing the Chileans a ‘mere’ US$80mn, for a fully operational unit, the cost differential to the PdA’s refit is stark. Maybe you miss the RAS(L) capability but dry stores and vertrep is clearly viable…plus you have that well deck for light boats/interceptors.

The yanks have tested RQ21 from a San Antonio successfully and a few of those configured with AIS and imagers plus a few more set up for comms relay is going to be an effective way of extending the surface plot. Even moreso if you could borrow a couple of the USN’s radar-MQ8B’s. All told with the aviation, small boat and troop capability my view would be that the Sirocco (or even the US$130mn for a new build Endurance LSD) would represent a better solution than the PdA-plus-refit.