Showing posts with label Aircraft Carrier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aircraft Carrier. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 April 2020

COVID-19 : Radical Changes For Naval Operations And Future Ship Designs Needed




Coronavirus by TP Heinz via Pixabay




As I write, the coronavirus pandemic which began as a mysterious respiratory illness in Wuhan City of China late last year has now engulfed the whole world with more than 1.4 million infected and more than 82000 deaths. The disease is officially known as COVID-19 ( coronavirus disease 2019 ) and the virus responsible for the illness is the SARS-CoV-2 ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 ).

Symptoms of the infection can range from asymptomatic to being a flu-like illness with malaise, fever, cough and dry throat, to severe respiratory distress requiring critical care. Being a viral illness meant that there is no effective treatment against it and it is largely left to the immune system to deal with the infection. Any medical intervention is therefore limited to providing life support and preventing further spread of the contagion.

Since the virus spread by means of droplets and surface contact, conditions of crowding and close person-to-person contact would facilitate its transmission. It was therefore not surprising that in Jan 2020 the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship which carried a total of 3711 passengers and crew, became a hotbed for COVID-19 transmission. It was quarantined at the Japanese port city of Yokohama since early February but because of poor, inadequate and perhaps ineffective infection control onboard, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 eventually reached 712 with 567 passengers and 145 crew members infected. 12 had died.



The crowded pilot house of the Gerald R Ford ( CVN-78 ) during replenishment-at-sea.
 It is impossible to achieve any meaningful physical distancing when
working and living onboard a ship. USN Photo



Now the living conditions onboard a warship is not much different from those onboard a commercial vessel. Space is always a premium on a ship. Confining a large group of people to a small area for an extended duration is the prime recipe for a highly contagious disease to spread. During a pandemic, all ships, merchantman or man-of-war, are simply floating incubators, epidemiological time bombs waiting to explode. With the news that the nuclear-powered attack carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt ( CVN-71 ) has been ravaged by the coronavirus and is now anything but war capable, we know that even the world's mightiest navy is not immune to this health menace. Is there anything that can be done to minimize the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak onboard a warship? Of course there are, but it would mean many of our traditional habits and the way we conduct our businesses and carry out our missions would have to be modified or changed drastically. Perhaps every future ship design would have to include special areas for medical treatment and isolation and even berthing arrangements and living quarters have to be redesigned.

As a case study we can look to the USS Theodore Roosevelt to appreciate what a tiny virus can do to a large warship in a matter of days.





The USS Theodore Roosevelt at the South China Sea with the
America Expeditionary Strike Group 15th Mar 2020. USN Photo.


The Grounding Of A Carrier



The Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group ( CSG ) comprising of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its surface and submarine escorts including the guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill ( CG-52 ) and several destroyers departed San Diego on 17th Jan 2020 for its Indo-Pacific deployment.

The CSG arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam, on 6th Feb after sailing across the Pacific Ocean. We can assume the sailors were granted their well deserved shore leave on Guam and they had also participated in various community relations activities over that weekend, such as interacting with young kids from a school, clearing and cleaning up a trail in a nature park, repainting of a veteran's memorial, and some other miscellaneous repairing and rebuilding projects.

It then sailed westwards and arrived at Da Nang on 5th Mar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations, becoming the second US aircraft carrier to make a port call in Vietnam since the fall of Saigon in 1975. As it was a high profile visit, the CSG was met by a whole host of Vietnamese and US government and military officials including Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink. Needless to say, there were also plenty of functions and receptions for the senior ranks to attend both ashore on onboard ship. For the lower ranks, the usual community relations projects were unavoidable. Somehow the military just love these social out reach programs and they can never have enough of them.



Reception at Da Nang 5th Mar 2020 : Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink
with COMPACFLT Adm John Aquilino (R),
COMCARSTRKGRU9 RAdm Stuart Baker (L)
and Capt Brett Crozier ( extreme L ). USN Photo.


Roosevelt ship crew dancing with locals at Dorothea's Project Legacies
Charity Center Da Nang 6th Mar 2020. USN Photo.



Military dignitaries from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
 visited the carrier on 7th Mar 2020. USN Photo.


After Da Nang, on 15th Mar the CSG deployed to the South China Sea and sailed with the America Expeditionary Strike Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as a combined Expeditionary Strike Force. On 18th Mar the CSG even managed some joint exercise with aircrafts like the F-15C from the US Pacific Air Forces operating out of Kadena AFB in Okinawa with a B-52H thrown in.



Exercising with the Air Force in the Philippine Sea 18th Mar 2020. USN Photo.



By 24th Mar however, the first cases of coronavirus infection has been reported among 3 ship crew onboard the Teddy Roosevelt. The number of the infected increased to 8 just a day later. Most of the infected only showed mild symptoms but they were flown off the aircraft carrier to the US Naval Hospital Guam for further tests, evaluation and quarantine. To fight the worsening outbreak, the US Navy had by then ordered the diversion of the carrier back to Guam and to have all of her 4845 sailors and airmen tested for the coronavirus. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly insisted that the carrier was still fully operational despite the disease outbreak but we known otherwise. How can a carrier be combat ready when it is tied at pier-side?


Captain Brett Elliott Crozier, USN. CO USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Photo : Wikipedia


Unfortunately for the Teddy Roosevelt, the number of infected sailors just kept increasing exponentially. By the time the carrier docked at Guam on 27th Mar the figure had risen to 25 infected. Soon after it became 36, and then 70. Worried about the health and safety of the sailors and airmen onboard the carrier, the commanding officer Captain Brett Crozier wrote a memo to the naval high command pleading for help to contain the outbreak, specifically to authorize the removal of about 4000 ship crew to a land based facility for two weeks of quarantine while a skeletal crew remain shipboard to run and maintain critical systems and deep clean the ship. The problem was Guam being an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean did not have means to quarantine 4000 people on land. The captain's memo was somehow leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle and before anyone knew, the entire world had learnt about the Roosevelt's predicament.


Aerial view of Apra Harbor, Guam with USS America (LHA-6)
at pier side 21 Mar 2020. USN Photo.

 As a result of his plea and the publicity it generated, arrangements have been made to transfer about three thousand sailors ashore for quarantine. Not all could be evacuated as a skeletal crew had to remain onboard to operate critical systems that could not be shut down, like the Roosevelt's two Westinghouse A4W pressurized water nuclear reactors. Security and fire fighting details and a few hundred ship crew will have to remain onboard to deep clean the carrier which was estimated to take about 10 days. One thousand had left the ship on 1st Apr, with more to follow. It generated a lot of unhappiness among the local population of Guam who were rightly afraid that the sailors would introduce the coronavirus to their island.

So far all the infected personnel are medically stable and do not require hospitalization, ventilator support or critical care. Nobody from the Roosevelt has yet died from the infection but the captain's actions would eventually cost him his job. On 2nd Apr Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly relieved Capt Brett Crozier of his command citing loss of confidence and lack of leadership in times of crisis. He left his ship amidst a rousing send off by the ship crew, who clearly believed that their commanding officer had acted with their safety and well being at heart. By then the number of infected had already reached 114.



Seabees from the 1st and 5th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion
with vehicles to transport sailors to shore based quarantine facilities
3rd Apr 2020. USN Photo.


COMSEVENTHFLT Vice Admiral Bill Merz visits barracks
housing quarantined sailors at Guam 5th Apr 2020. USN Photo.


By 5th Apr Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN there were 155 infected. Even the poor captain himself had come down with the infection and is currently in quarantine. He had shown symptoms before he left his command.

The latest twist of this saga was that Thomas Modly himself was forced to resign as the acting secretary of the Navy on 7th April, a day after he described Capt Crozier as " too naïve or too stupid " to be in command, in a speech given during his visit to the aircraft carrier. The abrupt manner of Capt Crozier's dismissal as the commanding officer without going through a board of inquiry and due process was also a sticking point among naval personnel. The latest infected numbers on 7th Apr stood at 230 and it will surely go up in the coming weeks.*

As anyone could see, in about slightly more than a week, there were more than two hundred personnel who contracted the virus and the aircraft carrier is effectively non-operational being confined to port with more than half its compliment disembarked and on quarantine. We might never know how the virus first infected the ship, but a common assumption was from the 5 day port visit to Da Nang ( 5th - 9th Mar ). With the bulk of its crew now in quarantine, I suspect the Roosevelt's COVID-19 cases will peak in two weeks though new cases will continue to emerge sporadically for several more weeks since not all ship crew could be quarantined at the same time.

The good news is that since most of the ship's compliment are young and presumably healthy, most of Roosevelt's COVID-19 cases should recover with hopefully minimal complications. And once these people recover, they should have immunity against the coronavirus and they can even be deployed to provide care for their COVID-19 stricken compatriots without the need for those cumbersome personal protective equipment! They can also be a reliable donor source for the promising but not yet FDA-approved convalescent plasma therapy where the neutralizing antibodies against the coronavirus present in the plasma of recovered patients is transfused to help the acutely infected recover. In the unlikely event that a huge proportion of the ship crew eventually acquires the infection and the herd immunity threshold ( HIT ) is reached, the rest of the uninfected members will then be protected. The problem is this coronavirus outbreak is so new that nobody really knows what its HIT is. For measles, the HIT is between 90 to 95% to achieve herd immunity. Other less contagious diseases have lower HIT.

* 10 Apr - infected ship crew now hits 416. 3170 tested negative with 1164 results still pending. One sailor in ICU.

* 11 Apr - 92% ship crew tested. 550 positive, 3673 negative. 3696 moved ashore.

* 13 Apr - 585 infected. One death.

* 15 Apr - 615 infected. Majority asymptomatic ( 350 ). Chief Petty Officer Charles Thacker identified as sailor who died.

* 23 Apr - 840 positive. 4098 negative. 4234 moved ashore. 88 recovered. Tests completed.

* 28 Apr - USN COVID-19 Update website says 940 active cases, 29 recovered. Change in reporting parameter means only those with 2 successive negative tests count as recovered.


Infection Control Measures For COVID-19


To prevent personnel from acquiring and spreading COVID-19 onboard warships especially during deployments of prolonged duration, navies have to completely change the usual way peacetime naval operations are conducted.

As COVID-19 numbers keep rising in every country which can only mean there is sustained local / community transmission of the coronavirus, it is inevitable that some military personnel would have been infected as well. Whereas the ground and air force personnel could be immediately isolated and sent home or quarantined at a designated facility when found to be infected, the same arrangements could be impossible for naval personnel during a major deployment. Here are some changes that can potentially make a difference in the prevention of contagion onboard deployed ships.


Defer Unnecessary Trainings And Deployments


Just as the general public had been told to avoid and defer all unnecessary travels, the navy should also limit their fleet deployments to those that are of absolute necessity. All training deployments should be deferred until the pandemic has run its course. All chest-thumping / show-of-force type operations like those Freedom of Navigation operations should cease immediately. Training exercises can be postponed. If it is about saving lives like search and rescue missions, medical relief missions for the pandemic, or if the sovereignty or survival of the nation is at stake, like nuclear deterrence missions, proceed with caution.


Pre-Deployment Quarantine


The incubation period ( time between exposure to the development of symptoms ) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is said to be between 2 to 7 days with a mean ( average ) of 4 days. In some cases the incubation period can be as long as 14 days. In order to ensure all embarked ship crew are healthy and not carrying or incubating the virus, they should be put to 14 days of pre-deployment quarantine. It should preferably be done at a base facility where there are rooms with attached toilet and shower, one individual to each room. There should be daily temperature checks and the monitoring of symptoms.

Any individual who develops fever or flu-like symptoms during this 14 day isolation period will have to be thoroughly checked for COVID-19 infection. Only if the individual is well and symptom free at the end of the 14 days can he or she be allowed to embark for deployment.


Vessel Preparation For Deployment


While the ship crew are under pre-deployment quarantine, the usual routine pre-sailing ship preparation will perhaps have to be undertaken by their squadron mates. Fuel, ammunition and food supplies have to be loaded, preferably in quantities sufficient to last the entire deployment if practicable. Such stores should be sanitized prior to loading onboard ship with the appropriate method, disinfectant spray, ultraviolet light etc. Medical supplies including personal protective equipment, medications, diagnostic equipment will have to be catered for. The ship should be deep cleaned prior to the embarkation of those who passed quarantine.


Special Measures When Underway


Ship crew should refrain from group gatherings like briefings and meetings as much as possible. They should try to maintain a physical distance of at least a metre from each other if practicable. Meal times should be staggered to avoid having large groups in the mess hall. The use of recreational facilities like the gym and ward rooms should similarly be regulated to maintain physical distancing.

Since ship systems need to be manned continuously once underway, the crew would have been organized into different teams to work in shifts. Members of different teams should also refrain from mingling with each other after-shift so that in case any team member is down with an infection and the entire team has to be in quarantine, at least the other teams would not be affected.

Another important area to note is movement of personnel between different vessels of the task group should be prohibited. Similarly transfer of personnel in and out of each ship should also be limited to medical or other emergencies only.


Avoiding Unnecessary Port Calls


This will be tough as port calls are frequently the highlight of every deployment. Who does not like the opportunity to visit a foreign city and experience a different culture even if it is only for a few days? Many things happen during port calls as ships replenish their depleted food supplies and take on fuel if necessary. The host country might organize a reception ashore for the ship's company and then the ship will have to reciprocate by hosting a shipboard reception during which lots of guests and ship officers and crew will mingle and party. There is no doubt that such functions are standard naval protocol and can foster the development of bilateral ties, friendship and camaraderie. They are also potential hotbeds for COVID-19 transmission and should be banned altogether during this pandemic.

It is also a common practice for navies all over the world to conduct community relations events or community outreach programs whenever the ship docks at a foreign port. So visiting some orphanage or old folk's home, repainting a school, cleaning up a beach or a park .... becomes mandatory for the lower ranks. These activities can frequently bring real benefits to the local communities, touch lives and also hopefully benefit the participants by accentuating their sense of humility seeing and serving the less fortunate. Again, during an epidemic or pandemic, these relations building activities should cease completely. The opportunity to serve will always remain and can be engaged again after the disease outbreak is under control.

For short deployments ships should therefore be as self-sufficient as possible and avoid port calls altogether. For longer deployments, port visits should be limited to taking on and off-loading essentials and no shore leave should be granted. No visitors should be allowed onboard the ship unless of absolute necessity, like the harbor pilot to ensure safe navigation into and out of the port. Even then keep a safe physical distance and provide the pilot with a surgical mask if he is not already wearing one and remind him not to touch anything. And don't forget to clean up the bridge after he leaves.


Good Personal Hygiene


Perhaps the single most important measure against the spread of the coronavirus is the practice of good personal hygiene. An infected person will be shedding a lot of the virus through the nasal mucous and phlegm from the throat. When he or she sneezes or coughs, droplets can land on surfaces or be directly inhaled by others in close proximity. An infected person's hands will be also likely be heavily contaminated with the virus if he or she wipes the nose without subsequently washing the hands.

With the understanding of how the virus spreads, frequent hand washing with soap or the use of disinfecting hand rubs are therefore the best defense against getting infected. Keep your hands clean and try not to touch your face or rub your eyes because that's how the virus enters your body - through the eyes ( conjunctiva ), the nose or the mouth via your dirty hands.

Wash your hands before you have your meal and also after you have visited the toilet. Coronaviruses can be shed through the feces of an infected person. Sometimes viral RNA can be detected in the feces long after they have recovered from the illness, though it could be just viral genetic material and not the viable virus itself. So shared heads / communal toilets must be kept clean. Common areas should be regularly cleaned with disinfectants.





Masks


There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that pre-symptomatic spread of the coronavirus can occur. Universal mask wearing might be a good idea for all personnel onboard the ship for self protection and for protecting others should one fall sick and unknowingly spread the virus during the incubation phase. Exemptions can be made for those in anti-flash gear.

A properly made disposable surgical mask has a waterproof middle layer that prevents respiratory droplets from a sick person from escaping and infecting other people. An N95 type respirator is not necessary for non-medical use. Not only are some types of N95 mask not fluid resistant, they are also very uncomfortable to wear and may result in the wearer touching the face much more frequently to adjust the uncomfortable mask resulting in higher risk of infection.

Masks alone cannot prevent COVID-19 infection and must be used in combination with other measures for infection control. Between them, hand washing and physical distancing are still more important.

There is currently a worldwide shortage of masks, surgical as well as N95, as the pandemic rages. Most mask manufacturing countries have restricted and then banned their export altogether with the hope of keeping whatever is available for themselves. Since we are nowhere even near the peak of the pandemic, mask shortages will be the order of the day for many many months to come. Conserve your masks and save your stock for later when shit really hits the ceiling. Quartermasters and medics guard your mask supplies like gold and ration them carefully.

Unless you have an unlimited supply, do not discard your mask after a single use like what most would do before. Instead, keep the disposable mask clean and you can reuse it for 2 or maybe 3 days. When removing the mask for later use, remember not to touch the outer, potentially contaminated surface of the mask. Hold it by the straps and keep it in a clean zip lock bag. If surgical masks are not available, studies have shown that even reusable / washable cloth masks can be better than no mask at all.



Impact On Future Ship Designs


As the world population continue to grow and our insatiable demand for resources drive us towards large scale exploitation of nature, human exposure to wild animals will increase exponentially and with it the number of zoonotic diseases. A zoonosis is an infectious disease caused by a pathogen that has jumped from its usual animal host to humans. Some recent examples include Marburg Haemorrhagic Fever ( 1967 W. Germany ), Ebola virus disease ( 1976 Sudan, Congo), Hanta virus pulmonary syndrome ( 1993 Four Corners, US ), H5N1 Avian Influenza ( 1997 Hong Kong ), Nipah virus disease ( 1998 Malaysia ), SARS ( 2002 Hong Kong ), MERS ( 2012 Middle East ) and COVID-19. These emerging infectious diseases frequently cause severe symptoms and carry with them high mortality rates.

To cater for these ever frequent disruptive epidemics, naval architects should design future warships with special considerations for disease prevention and treatment. Living quarters and work spaces could be bigger. Hot bunking should be a thing of the past. Every sailor should have his or her own room, even if it means it has to be capsule hotel style, small and cramped. The current bunking arrangement of segregation by rank, that is, Officer's mess, Petty Officer and Chief Petty Officer's mess, Junior Rank's mess, should be reviewed. It involves too much movement and intermingling of ship personnel. Instead ship crew should be divided into watch keeping teams and personnel from the same team bunk together, regardless of rank. So a ship can have several such sleeping quarters for different watch keeping teams and each should have its own heads, shower, laundry facilities, mini pantry, recreation area and maybe even a mini gym.

The ship should have dedicated rooms for medical treatment and isolation in case of a disease outbreak onboard the ship. Each isolation room should have its own toilet and sink so that the crew member in isolation need not get out of the room to wash or relieve himself. This requirement can be tough to meet on a small platform like Singapore's Victory-class missile corvette which is 62m long and has a displacement of 595 tonnes, but nobody says you should build designs like these anymore.

The future ship should also have advanced communications links between different compartments to transmit real time video and audio signals to reduce the need for the ship crew to physically gather for meetings and briefings.

The ultimate goal could perhaps be to eliminate the human crew altogether. If we can have a frigate-sized unmanned surface vessel that is remotely controlled and unmanned droid-carrying amphibious assault ships, we will not have to worry about diseases and outbreaks. In the event of war, there will be no casualties to worry about either! A Little far fetched but this day may arrive sooner than we think.

And lastly, for our readers whose town or city might be in lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a gentle reminder to STAY HOME and help flatten the epidemiological curve in your country.






















Saturday 5 July 2014

JMMS - Singapore's ( and South East Asia's* ) first Aircraft Carrier?


The Joint Multi-Mission Ship ( JMMS )


 
 
 
ST Marine Endurance-160 JMMS. Source : ST Marine

 


In his pre-SAF Day media interview 3 days ago, Singapore's Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen mentioned about the possibility of the RSN ( Republic of Singapore Navy ) acquiring a new class of large helicopter carrying support ship that could provide better aid during major humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations (HADR).

"While the Landing Ships Tank have served us (well), we are seriously considering a larger Joint Multi-Mission Ship (JMMS) that would have greater capacity and greater range to respond."
"When we responded to Typhoon Haiyan...the typhoon was so devastating that communications were knocked out."
"There was no centralised ability for command and control of the airspace. In that context, a ship like the JMMS would have been very useful."



The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan
destroyed entire towns as this scene in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture
( 大船渡市, 岩手県 ) shows.
 Pretty nothing much is left standing after the double whammy
of earthquake and tidal wave. US Navy Photo.



So what exactly is a JMMS? To understand this ship, one has to go back to its precursor - the Endurance Class Landing Ship Tank.



The Endurance Class LST




RSS Persistence ( L-209 ) of the Republic of Singapore Navy. Photo : Wikipaedia


RSS Resolution ( LPDM 208 ) and USS Denver ( LPD 9 ) during
Ex Cobra Gold 2011. USN Photo


 
 
The ST Marine Endurance class Landing Ship Tank (LST) as the SAF calls it is actually not an LST! It should more accurately be described as an LPD - Landing Platform Dock in naval parlance. An LST is an amphibious transport ship that can beach itself and discharge its cargo of men and vehicles directly onto the beach head via a bow ramp. In contrast, an LPD has an internal well deck that can be flooded so that troops and vehicles can be transferred to the shore by landing crafts carried internally. It does not and cannot beach itself like an LST. Interestingly, ST Marine correctly labeled the Endurance Class as LPDs on their website. The following pictures shows how the well deck looks like and how crafts, vehicles and materials can be loaded and unloaded.



This is how a typical well deck looks like when dry. Japan Self Defense Force
vehicles line the well deck of the amphibious landing ship dock USS Tortuga ( LSD-46 )
16th Mar 2011 during relief operations in Northern Honshu. USN Photo

 

This is how it looks like from inside the well deck. A landing Craft Utility ( LCU )
enters the flooded well deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
USS Essex ( LHD-2 ). USN Photo

 
 
This is how the flooded well deck looks like from outside the ship.
The amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall ( LSD-44 ) transits
during wet well operations as part of landing craft utility ( LCU ) training and maintenance,
11th Apr 2014, Gulf of Oman. USN Photo.
 
 

Hovercrafts do not require a flooded well deck for entering an amphibious ship.
Landing craft Air Cushion ( LCAC ) 71 prepares to enter the well deck of the
San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde ( LPD-19 )
23rd Mar 2014 in the Arabian Sea. USN Photo.
 

 

Here's another way of loading at sea without flooding.
Towed artillery being transferred from a landing craft utility ( LCU )
 into the lower vehicle area of the Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship
USS Denver ( LPD 9 ) in Okinawa, Japan 3rd Feb 2014. USN Photo.

 

The RSN used to operate 5 World War Two era ( think D-Day Normandy or Iwo Jima landings ) ex-US Navy County class LST since the 1970s. For more than 20 years they served as transports and training platforms especially for midshipmen ( naval officer cadets ). However, they had become harder and uneconomical to maintain with the passage of time and were eventually replaced by the indigenously designed and built Endurance class LPDs.



USS Holmes County ( LST 836 ), commissioned in 1944 and served
 in the Pacific Theatre during WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and
was loaned to Singapore in 1971 and finally sold to Singapore outright in 1975.
 She was renamed RSS Endurance ( L-201 ),
 the first ship to bear that name in the RSN. Photo : Navsource.org

 

The Endurance Class - Specs and Capabilities




The Endurance class ships have a displacement of about 7600 tons, a length of 141m, a breath of 21m and a draft of 5m. They are capable of making 17 knots and have a maximum range of 5500 nautical miles. The aft helicopter deck can operate 2 medium-lift helicopters like the AS-332M Super-Puma simultaneously or 1 heavy-lift helicopter like the Boeing CH-47D Chinook. The internal well dock can hold 4 LCM / LCVP type landing crafts. The compliment is officially stated as 120 crew and 15 aircrew and each ship can carry in excess of 300 troops. They are armed with a 76mm OTO MELARA super rapid main gun, two 25mm M242 Bushmaster autocannons and 4 CIS 12.7mm heavy machine guns. Air defense is provided by Mistral missiles fired from two Simbad twin launchers.


RSS Resolution underway. Note the 76mm Oto Melara main gun. RSN Photo
 
 
RSS Endeavour during the Royal Australian Navy's International Fleet Review 2013
in Sydney. Note the bow doors. Wikicommons


RSS Endeavour entering Sydney Harbour during the
Royal Australian Navy's International Fleet Review 2013. Wikicommons
 

 

ST Marine has so far build 5 ships of this class, the first four, RSS Endurance, RSS Resolution, RSS Persistence and RSS Endeavour were commissioned between the years 2000 and 2001 for the RSN. The last ship HTMS Angthong was commissioned in 2012 for the Royal Thai Navy for a sum of SGD 200 million.


Royal Thai Navy's LPD 791 HTMS Angthong during
Cobra Gold 2016. Wikicommons




These LPD have since been actively involved with anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and HADR missions in Aceh ( 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami ) and the Philippines ( Typhoon Haiyan ). They have proven themselves to be potent and capable platforms. Value-wise they also compare favourably with similar classed vessels from foreign navies like the LPD-17 San Antonio class which cost ten times as much to build ( to be fair these are 25000 ton vessels , 3 times bigger ) and yet still suffer from poor workmanship and many teething problems!




Anti-piracy duty : The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush ( CVN 77 )
is underway with Singapore Navy tank landing ship
RSS Endeavour ( L210 ) in the Gulf of Aden 15th Nov 2011. USN Photo



The Endurance Family


ST Marine's website touts 3 different configurations for the Endurance type support ship. The Endurance-120, the Endurance-140 and finally the Endurance-160 based on the length of the ship. So the RSS Endurance which measures 141m belongs to the Endurance-140 sub-type and as far as anyone is aware this is the only type that has been built by ST Marine. The 120 and 160 are simply options for export or future consideration.


The Endurance-class LPD brochure from ST Marine



The Endurance 120, 140 and 160. Image : ST Marine
 


Apart from the length, the main difference between the Endurance-120 and the Endurance-140 is the load capacity. So the 120 is a miniature version of the 140 that carries only one medium-lift helicopter and less landing crafts and less troops.

The Endurance-160 however, is a different kettle of fish. It is only 20m longer but is twice as big as the Endurance-140 in terms of tonnage - in the 14500 ton range. It has a through flight deck that can accommodate five helicopters and an island superstructure that immediately screams "Helicopter Carrier". The top speed is increased to 22 knots and its range listed as 7000 nautical miles. It has a well deck and carries landing crafts just like her smaller siblings. Since 2010, ST Marine has been showcasing scaled models of this ship at major defense exhibitions like the Singapore Airshow but there has been no foreign or domestic sales so far. The equivalent USN designation would be Landing Helicopter Dock ( LHD) and a good example would be USS Wasp ( LHD-1 ) class amphibious assault carriers, though these are 40000 ton monsters.



USS Bonhomme Richard ( LHD 6 ), a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship transits
the East China Sea 22nd Apr 2014. Sailors and Marines onboard conducted
SAR operations at the Korean ferry disaster site near Jindo Island. USN Photo

 
 
 

The Multi-Role Assault Carrier

 
 
So what value can an amphibious assault carrier add to a small navy like the RSN? After all you cannot possibly be assaulting your neighbour's beach all the time, can you? Though I must say the temptation would certainly be there especially if your neighbour is intent on reclaiming land and creating new beach heads near your maritime boundary all the time. 
 
First, let's get the records straight. An amphibious assault ship is an offensive weapon system and is not used for defense. Its main role is that of force projection over the seas and across the surf zones to land an amphibious force onto a beach head as efficiently as possible. Depending on the aviation assets embarked ( AH-64D Apache gunship ), it may even provide fire support for the landing force.

It can be a platform for airborne mine countermeasures missions, again if there are helicopters like the MH-53E Sea Dragon embarked.
 
Last but not least, it can also potentially be a potent anti-submarine platform as long as the appropriate mix of ASW helicopters are carried.
 
At the same time, the very characteristics that enable an amphibious assault ship to provide good support to an amphibious landing on a hostile beach also makes it an ideal platform for a HADR mission. The large capacity for cargo means more relief supplies can be carried. Heavy vehicles and mechanized equipment can be embarked and disembarked with relative ease. A large warship also tends to have more advanced communications suite and can be used as a command and communications centre for the relief mission. Its medical and surgical facilities can provide treatment to those in need. Most importantly its fleet of medium and heavy-lift helicopters can provide sustained airlift capabilities when roads and airfields are completely destroyed in major disasters.
 
However, HADR missions, although they are becoming increasing common for the Singapore Armed Forces, can never be the main justification for acquiring a new capability as major as an assault carrier. You will be silly to spend several hundred million dollars on a ship just to play the Good Samaritan and be in the good books of your neighbours! So the real motive or rationale for having a helicopter carrier is still not immediately obvious to the public but perhaps one could speculate? Could this be a respond to the increasingly aggressive and belligerent behavior of China in the South China Sea?

 
 

The South China Cauldron


 
The South China Sea is a hugely volatile area with many Pacific Rim nations having claims on its numerous shoals and island groups. The Spratly Islands for example, is simultaneously claimed by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Brunei. Until not so long ago, regional powers have largely played by the rules and avoided serious armed confrontations. The rise of China as an economic and military power in recent years have changed the status quo. Having utterly modernized its airforce and navy and with the commissioning of a brand new aircraft carrier the Liaoning, China has upped the ante by unilaterally declaring an air defense identification zone ( ADIZ ) over the East China Sea and have been seen engaging in thuggish behavior like fire control radar locking on a Japanese ship, ramming a Vietnamese patrol boat, spraying water cannons on fishing vessels, blockading Pilipino resupply ships from relieving an island outpost, buzzing Japanese aircrafts and intrusions into Japanese airspace to test their scrambling response etc. Although Singapore does not have any territorial disputes with any country in the South China Sea ( not counting Pedra Branca as the dispute has been settled in the ICJ in Singapore's favour ), any escalation of tension in the region will still disrupt trade and communications, thus potentially threatening its independence and survival.  
 

How To Tame A Dragon


 
So what could be done about China who is blatantly disregarding international norms and law? What if China claims the entire South China Sea as its own and restrict passage? Even the combined forces of all ten ASEAN nations is probably no match for China. And please do not put too much hope with the new Japanese not so pacifist Constitution as it does not really change anything. The US is not too keen to get involved in anybody's business nowadays and would be more than happy to lead from behind. Obama took more than a year before reaffirming that the US would come to Japanese aid should her territories be violated. Further afield nothing was done when Crimea was taken from Ukraine except sanctions and more useless sanctions. All this means that you can't really depend on others to protect you when shit hits the ceiling ( and why should they? ). At the end of the day, it still pays to be self-sufficient, whether in defense, resources or other things.

 

Endurance-200?

 


How about a light aircraft carrier capable of carrying half a squadron of F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters? That surely would be a game changer. Dr Ng was referring to an Endurance-160 type helicopter carrier in his pre-SAF Day speech and he did mention that SAF is still in the preliminary feasibility stages and the design has not been finalized. Now it would not need too much imagination to think that what if an Endurance-180 or better still an Endurance-200 type hull be acquired and you can have instead a light aircraft carrier like the Giuseppe Garibaldi shown below?
 
 
Italian light aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi with AV-8 Harrier
STOVL jets and helicopters on the flight deck. Wikipaedia
 
 
The short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) designated the F-35B needs 168m of real estate for take-off. Less if a ramp is available. So a 25000 ton Endurance-200 could well be constructed to be able to embark more than just five helicopters and a ramp could be included in the design for fixed-wing operations. A large hangar bay would have to be included in the design, together with bigger aircraft elevators and most importantly, a jet blast proofed flight deck. Nobody would want a repeat of what the brand new USS America is going through - 40 weeks of additional yard time for modifications to the flight deck because it could not withstand the heat from the F-35B, an aircraft it was originally designed to operate! Of course the F-35B is currently not quite yet ready for mass production but it would hopefully be ready when the Endurance-200 is commissioned.  



A F-35B Lightning II lands aboard the amphibious assault ship
USS Wasp ( LHD 1 ) during the second at-sea F-35
developmental test event, Atlantic Ocean, 14th Aug 2013. USN Photo.

 

F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft BF-3 with inert AIM-9X sidewinder missiles
over the Atlantic test range Sep 2012. The F-35B variant is designed
for the US Marine Corps as well international partners including the UK and Italy
and is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings to enable
air power projection from amphibious ships, ski-jump aircraft carriers
and expeditionary airfields. USN Photo


F-35B of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-23 during the
first ever ski jump launch of the JSF at NAS Patuxent River
19th Jun 2015. Wikicommons


The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6)
conducts flight operations off the coast of Southern California (USA)
during the ship's recertification of the flight deck after
completing a 10-month Post Shakedown Availability (PSA). USN Photo.


 
HMS Invincible ( R-05 ) of the Royal Navy, now decommissioned,
with her Ski-jump ramp for STOVL fixed wing operations in 2005
during the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar celebrations. Wikipaedia
 


 
MV-22 Ospreys : Having a couple of these folding wing tilt-rotors
will be really NICE. The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer ( LHD 4 )
is underway during Ex Dawn Blitz 2013. USN Photo.

 
With her air bases easily within artillery range from her closest neighbors ( both Malaysia and Indonesia possess the Astros II multiple launch rocket system ), an added benefit of having a carrier for Singapore would be that of mitigating the effectiveness of a pre-emptive strike from taking out the entire air force.

 

CVBG - Carrier Battle Group

 
We are all aware that aircraft carriers are high value targets and they never operate alone. Therefore with the Endurance-200, more frigates, corvettes and submarines will be required to form its protection group. Oilers and supply ships will be needed too. Most of these assets the RSN already owns or is in the process of acquiring, like the Type 218SG hunter killer submarine with air-independent propulsion, scheduled for delivery in the year 2020.
 
When that happens, Singapore will be the first in the region to have an operational aircraft carrier battle group and the RSN will be transformed into a true Blue Water Navy, offering credible deterrence to any nation intent upon disrupting her sea lines of communications (SLOC). I suspect it would be named RSS Singapura or perhaps RSS Temasek, because, why would anyone want to name a capital vessel after some nondescript province or some peasant ward??!

* Not counting the Thai-tanic HTMS Chakri Naruebet which, in 1999, barely 2 years after commissioning, had only one serviceable Matador ( Harrier VTOL ) to play with, and none after 2006.