Australian firm, Sea Transport Solutions has developed a highly cost-competitive and viable approach to the Royal Australian Navy's Aircraft Training Vessel (ATV) requirement. The vessel would use Sea Transport's Stern Landing Vessel (SLV) hull design to maximise the payload and flexibility of the ship.
"The search for the better mousetrap is never ending, and the tragedy of the Black Hawk helicopter in 2006 in Fiji highlighted the lack of actual over water training by helicopter crews," Sea Transport Chief Executive Stuart Ballantyne said.
Two Australian soldiers died after a Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter crashed on November 29, 2006, while the pilot was trying to land on HMAS 'Kanimbla' during exercises preparing for evacuations from Fiji.
The military standard Stern Landing Vessel (SLV) designs which Sea Transport Solutions has patented, has been proposed as an oceangoing replacement for the ageing and ineffective LSTs and other similar vessels — LCH/LCT/LCUs — which the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) acquired second-hand from overseas.
The new SLV's have a range of 6,000 nautical miles with 400 tonnes on deck at twelve knots, but the hull can achieve 14.6 knots with 2,000kw and 400 tonnes on deck
"The LCH /LCT/LCU designs are well known by those who have served on them, as 'next to hopeless' in head seas, manoeuvrability, range, and in many operational aspects," said Mr Ballantyne who is a naval architect, former seafarer and naval reservist.
"They are from a bygone era and should remain there. Commercial LCT versions worldwide, continue to capsize with monotonous regularity, which can be verified promptly on a Google search. Not only are they intrinsically unsafe, they are not capable of redeployment."
The SLV design is based on proven commercial vessels and not only secures better head sea speeds, but a higher on deck payload by around 60 percent. Sea Transport Solutions has 18 working vessels in the commercial arena from 20 metres to 140 metres, so developing a military-specification solution for the Royal Australian Navy was not an insurmountable task. Significantly, the SLV options designed by Sea Transport are highly mission-flexible, giving the Navy a wide range of use options for the ships.
The multi-propeller SLVs have substantial fendering underwater to protect the stern gear from being damaged, even in an angled approach to beaches.
The above picture shows a vessel which can carry nine M1A1 Abrams tanks and can easily handle beach gradients of 1:25.
Adding to this a helicopter training requirement, results in a vessel like this:
The key of course is to keep sufficient headroom (around 3.8 mETRES) in the well deck to allow the M1 tanks still to be loaded and discharged, with adequate room each side for troop access.
The flight deck is strengthened for the Apache or ARH Eurocopter Tiger assault helicopters.
With an impressive 6,000-mile range, and a high bow to handle heavy seas, the 65-metre SLV has attracted considerable attention worldwide.
For ATV operations of course, the area of training would be coastal, and nearby to military bases ashore.
The Australian 2009 Defence White Paper on military requirements, recently nominated the STS SLV design as a replacement for the LCHs.
