THE Royal Australian Navy will soon take ownership of the first of two new giant ‘landing helicopter dock’ (LHD) ships being built at the Williamstown shipyards.
The Weekly gained exclusive access to one of the ships, the Canberra, which has a flight deck equal in area to 24 tennis courts.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who inspected the ship last Monday, said the two LHDs would give Australia an enormous ship-to-shore capacity.
The ship can be used for combat, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations and can transport equipment, personnel and medical facilities.
“It’s the biggest warship the Royal Australian Navy has ever operated — bigger than the last aircraft carrier,” Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare said.
“It’s also a floating city. This is a ship which can hold over 1000 soldiers, 100 trucks and 12 helicopters.
‘‘It’s got a hospital that could cater for a town about the size of Warrnambool, and when powered up it can produce enough electricity to power a city the size of Darwin.’’
The navy will be able to operate the Canberra in 2014 with the second, the Adelaide, to follow.
BAE Systems, which is building the LHDs, employs 1200 people at the Williamstown shipyards.
Mr Smith said the government would continue to ensure there was a better flow of work for the Australian Defence Industry. “One of the things that we are looking at the moment is whether there is a capacity for more work to be given to this workshop, to this shipyard, in the Air Warfare Destroyer project. It’s a commercial decision for the [Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance], but they’re considering it.’’
