As usual I just want to remark upon the excellent postings of Swerve, Jonesey and Fedaykin. The above piece of myth busting being quoted as an exceptional example. Just to add my two pence, it is worth noting that everybody is moving away from LST’s in one way or another. Furthermore you would not even need a Smerch to mess up an LST’s day. A fast firing 120mm mortar or even a few AT missiles will have the potential to make life very complicated indeed.

On the wider issue of turkey and future procurement, it seems like a classic case that a real foreign policy/money driven defence review is needed to determine exactly what Turkeys armed forces are expected to do. An LPD may not be that unsuitable depending on what your ambitions are, if your foreign policy objectives are limited to disaster relief and only intervention in failed states very little escort of any sort is required, take the proposed South African LPD procurement as an example.

The Dokdo may well be a good option, however one of the best ways to make it cheaper would be to remove some of the luxuries like the V/STOL preperations and impressive CMS/radar outfit.

are you sure about the Dokdo radar fit I thought it was sparce and quite cheaply fit out. This next bits from memory but I think they had to borrow some kit from USMC to bring it up to standard

Portagee,

I think this is a clear case of technology outstripping requirements though. Searchwater 2000 has proven itself to be equally competent overwater on air surveillance and ashore on ISTAR taskings. If A160T can simultaneously provide comms relay for deployed ground troops it offers overwatch, targetting and control capabilities far beyond the MASC requirement on a single air vehicle. A scope of operations that would be far beyond the remit of a pair of RN ops lads at their workstations in an ASaC7 to control anyway!.

It may be that a Merlin AEW with the Cerberus mission suite might be in order to provide local look-down radar coverage over the fleet at assembly areas etc and that the ops in that fleet air defence role could be extremely valuable in air direction and raid assessment. For the wider mission however you would want ground intel piped back to senior bootie and his team aboard the LPD, any significant ground target ashore would need to be fed to the TLAM planning cell or surface PWO etc, etc. For that mission it doesnt matter whether the radar is on a UAV or a manned airframe as the operators are just doing a relay job anyway!.

Trident,

I’d never have put the Oko array at 200kg!. Good information – thanks!.

im wondering where you will put ASTOR into that mix as seems to be tasked with the kind of ground surveillance ops which you describe.

This sounds like a fairly elaborate process, with the odd twist of the hull repairs being performed last of all – very peculiar.

The “underwater repair package” would seem to indicate that corrosion has become a major issue for the warbuilt ex-Hermes. It would be interesting to know just how thin the hull plates really have really become

seems fairly Armageddonish for India if there are going to all this effort to keep Hermes in service and dealing with the hull. they must be keeping Hermes past 2014 when it will 71 YEARS OLD. Any idea how large this contract is?

I agree its very odd indeed and i can’t think why they are doing hull repairs last would have thought that would be 1st especially if there are new ships coming

You would think that nowadays the airwing would comprise:
24 E-model Super Hornets 2 fighter squadrons
24 C-model Hornets (to be replaced by C-model Lightning IIs) 2 light attack squadrons
12 F-model Super Hornets 1 medium attack squadron
4 Prowlers (to be replaced by G-model Super Hornets) 1 EW detachment
4 Hawkeyes 1 AEW Detachment
plus 8 – 12 Seahawks 1 squadron of various marks for ASW and SAR.

Do you think a dedicated detachment of tanker aircraft should be included and if so what? I’m for the Growlers doubling up on that role so that there would be 8 rather than 4.

wouldn’t the F35C replace the fighter squadrons rather than the attack squadrons

US Super Carriers can easily carry 80 plus aircraft but rarely do! During the 70’s & 80’s for example a typical Air Wing was…….

24 Tomcats
24 Corsair II’s or Hornets
14 Intruders
10 Vikings
6 Seakings or Seahawks
4 Hawkeyes

plus one or two COD’s

in short it was not uncommon to carry 82-84 aircraft! Many of which have a larger foot print that types used today!:cool:

sadly its more like 55-60 planes these days:( the USN along way from Reagen 600 ship navy. of course the Nimitz class can carry more than the QE class but when the CVF is in service the numbers would be quite close

Looking at the specs of those Indonesian LPDs, one realises that they aren’t exactly the highest-performance amphibs on the market, but they are very cheap. One is used as a hospital ship, & I think they’d do very well in that role for other navies, or for navies that want a limited amphibious capability (e.g. to replace some of the many old ex-US LSTs around the world) & are on a tight budget. Probably perfectly adequate for Indonesia, to be used mainly for cargo between islands, some of which lack proper ports. Damn useful if there’s another tsunami.

I’ve been looking up other navies with requirements for modest amphibious capability to replace old & worn-out ships. Most of these use their ships mainly as coastal & island transports, like Indonesia –

Argentina – struck its last landing ship some years ago, now using commercial-type cargo transports in the role.
Brazil – 2 ex-USN Thomaston (12000 ton) LSDs built in the 1950s, one ex-USN Newport (8500 ton) LST.
Chile – 1 ex-USN Newport LST. Stated requirement for an LPD or similar.
Ecuador – 1 ex-USN LST 542 (4000 tons)
Mexico – 1 ex-USN Newport, 3 ex-USN LST 511 (4000 ton).
Peru – 3 ex-USN Terrebonne Parish (6200 ton) LSTs.
Morocco – 1 ex-USN Newport LST.
South Africa – looking for LPD/LHD type ships for intervention (peacekeeping/ humanitarian) use.
Malaysia – 1 ex-USN Newport LST
Philippines – 2 relatively new LSTs, & 7 ancient LST 542s
Thailand – 2 relatively new LSTs, & 5 ancient LST 542s.
Vietnam – 3 old ex-USN/ex-RVN LSTs (4100 tons)

Thats quite a large market for a very austere LPD. Whats was the price for the Indonesians LPD it also reminds me of the old French LPD except with less helo spots.

would Latin America buy from South Korean yards

double post