I think that it’s also a matter of “kind of use” in every Navy. In Spain all the patrol missions in the boundaries of EEZ are nearly yet transferred to other services like Guardia Civil (a police service) or SVA (customs). Small patrol vessels (less than 1.000 t) are disappearing from the Armada order of battle. So, BAM ships will assume a role more similar to Floreals or even Lafayettes in French service, at a fraction of the cost of a proper frigate.
Other classes that must to go with the arrival of BAM are Descubierta corvettes (transformed in OPVs at the beginning of the 2000s) and, later, Serviola OPVs (a 1200 t PB).
Serviolas are not so different in concept compared to L’Adroit (well, 20 years of technical development ;)) and showed their limitations in the “Halibut War” vs Canada : Spain having to decide if she send a frigate, driving to an scale up in the conflict, or sending completely inadequate patrol boats (that suffered a lot in the North Atlantic waters).
May be those 20 years of technical evolution allow that a 1300 t ships achieves the capabilities of a 2000+ t ship a generation older, but curiously the trend in naval design seems to be “larger is better”.
Anyway, L’Adroit is a concept ship and the smallest of the Gowind family, with some members in the size range of the BAM.

Regards

For a matter of comparison, a couple of images of the first BAM (P-41 Meteoro), ending these days her tests prior commision.

Regards

Nice work!, Shiplover

The blue spot added this year is the one for a V-22 or other big chopper.

This is also a very nice Harrier Carrier!

The Principe de Asturias. A bit large, but probably not very expensive

A hell of expensive ship for the Spain of the 80’s. She was launched in a hurry with a provisional island fearing that the new socialist government axed the building. Once at sea, works progressed with plenty of troubles, with continuous strikes. Public shipyards suffered a drastic resize. Finally she started long sea trials in 1988, being accepted for service in 1989. For some months both R-01 Dedalo (Ex-Cabot) and R-11 PdA were nominally in service with Spanish Armada.
Principe de Asturias cost around 100.000 million of Spanish Pesetas of the 80’s. For comparison, the 72 Hornets of the FACA program (1984-1990) cost around 300.000 million.
A ship that, nowadays, cost around the same of 24 modern fighterbombers isn’t exactly a cheap one…:rolleyes:

Regards

No, JCI isn’t a pure carrier, only an LHD…. but like STOVL carrier is probably very comparable to PdA or other “Harrier-carriers”. Flight deck, hangar an elevators are larger than in PdA and designed with F-35B in mind, sensors and electronics are also quite capable for the carrier mission, in fact, when upgraded, PdA will receive the same equipments. She has also the needed structures for the maintenance of the aircrafts, though the crew and some tools would be borrowed from PdA or shared when PdA entered in maintenance, because Armada hasn’t the resources to maintain two combat air wings simultaneously
Of course, speed is much less (21 vs 26 kn and more in other STOVL ships) but speed is less relevant in STOVL operations than in CATOBAR. Other characteristics where PdA is superior are aviation fuel capability (1500 sq meters vs 900 in JCI) and weapons elevators up to the flight deck (3 vs 1).
So JCI is worse in some aspects but better in others than PdA… not considering the amphib role that is the main “raison d’etre” of the ship.
Certainly Armada considers PdA its main carrier and JCI a more flexible asset more devoted to phib, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations

Is there someone who known if Spain will substitute the Principes des asturias?

Well, she will enter in dry dock once JCI accepted in service (second half of 2009) for a MLU (18-24 months). The idea is after that to maintain her in service while the Harriers survive in Spanish service (2018-2020??). Then a substitute will be needed. The nature of that substitute is object of fierce debate in Spanish forums, but up to the moment Armada only considers a more or less “pure” STOVL carrier “a la Cavour”, or a second LHD.

Regards

LHD L-61 Juan Carlos I was launched today at 6:00 pm local time.

Courtesy of this site:
http://www.buquesdeguerra.es/

Regards