I’ll try to answer a pair of your questions.

2. What form of CIWS will be fitted to them? The Spanish ships are fitted for but not with the Merkoa CIWS. Also the G&C design had two CIWS’s one fore and one aft, will the Aussie F-100’s have the same as the Spanish or will they have the two they originally wanted?

No Meroka, I assure you.

The Meroka 2B variant proposed by E.N.Bazan (now Navantia) to be fitted in the F-100 class, was discarded by the Spanish Navy and its development halted years ago.

3.There are 2x 20mm canons either side of the bridge. Will these be replaced with two Remote controled Typhoon canons of the 25mm caliber?
4. Aft on the top of the hanger are a couple of spots for 50 cals, will these be replaced with the remote controled Mini Typhoons that are now fitted to the Sydney and Anzac class vessels in the RAN?

The light armament like many other things is a decision of the customer. If the RAN have the money and the ship is capable to support them, they can order the installation of any to the Australian shipyard selected to build the AWDs.

With the Aussie LHDs, we have a similar occurrence. The light armament will be selected by the RAN and probably installed by Tenix in Australia during the final works. Or if the RAN wants, by Navantia in Spain, before they sail to Tenix for completion.

Some comments.

think the BPE has one of the lowest manning requirements for a small carrier. ~200 odd. Mistral is I belive even less.

A little more than two hundred. Her permanent crew is predicted over 253.
Obviously depending of the mission request the Juan Carlos I, would embark an additional component:
· 103 High Staff personal.
· 925 Marine Infantry component
· 172 for the airwing.
· Capability to carry 250-750 more in containers of habitability.

I belive the Wasps require something like 1000 just to operate the ship. Which ment Australia couldn’t afford to run one, even if the US gave them a freebie. Cavour isn’t much better either.

It’s true, but some important differences on the ships designs, their airwings, aswell their automation level or the propulsion systems (full electric on the spanish BPE) should be keep in mind. All of them produce the low crew requeriments of the Juan Carlos I, if we count (on BPE) with the systems, mechanics, etc… of the NUM or a Wasp we would be talking of very different figures.

Australia is buying two BPE/Mistrals (TBC) for $2billion AUD. Thats about $700 million USD. Which is a lot more than the $300 million quoted here.

Well, leave me clarify this point. Independently of the budget that the Aussies have given to their program of LHDs, the reality is that the budget approved by the Spanish Cabinet* for the Juan Carlos I, is of only 360 Million €, not more, not less. Adds to that twelve (12) Million €, if the last minute touches or changes published in the General Magazine of Navy (Revista General de Marina), become in a reality. But at the end that it’s the price of the ship just “as is” the Spanish Armada will obtain it. Not included is her Airwing that would came from the Air Fleet of the Navy and the Airmobile Forces of the Army (FAMET). Also not included in the budget are the CIWS and/or Missile Weapon Systems because the Navy is undecided over them at this moment.

Oh, and the proposal of Tenix-Navantia for the Aussie LHDs Program is a modified version of the BPE, optimized to the Aussies needs and with local production in mind. These are the main reasons for the higher cost for the Aussies LHDs proposed.

*Cabinet Meeting – September 5th, 2003.

Are you sure it is possible to build a bigger carrier for 300 million Euros, I think that is now impossible and have my doubts that it can be done for less than 900 million and probably more. Consider the Cavour has not yet entered service and currently stands at 1.4 billion Euro although that is slightly larger than all of the above.

The budget aproved for the Strategic Projection Ship (27.000 T.) is 360 Million € nothing else.

Obviously the BPE is not an Aircraft Carrier as it. The spanish BPE is an LHD with Skyjump for the AV-8B+ and F-35B, with standard capacity of 10 AV-8B+/F-35B & 10-12 SH-3/NH-90. (Max. Capacity: 30 under deck + 6 operating over deck).

The BPE is not comparable to the italian Cavour, since he is an STOVL Aircraft Carrier with a minimal amphibious capacity, whereas the main roll of the BPE is the projección of spanish Marines and Army. For that reason its dock for 4 LCM-1E/LCM-8 & 6 RHIBs, the two garages for vehicles (up to 46 MTBs and a hundred of IFVs), its capacity for more than thousand troops, it four spots for Chinooks on the deck and one for the Osprey, if the tillrotor were ordered by Spain…