Among the hundreds of guests on board were 50 Rural Fire Service volunteers and their families, as well as brand new Australian citizens and NSW Governor Margaret Beazley. Picture: AAP Image/Bianca De MarchiHMAS Adelaide carries an enormous array of facilities that can be adapted to respond to almost any disaster.It displaces 27,500 tonnes, is 230m long, can move at a maximum 21 knots (38.9km/h) and can travel 16,600km without having to refuel.Costing about $1.5 billion, HMAS Adelaide is much bigger and more capable in almost every respect over HMAS Choules, which featured so prominently in pulling 1000 people off Mallacoota beach in Victoria this week.HMAS Adelaide has an on-board medical facility which is better equipped than many regional hospitals.Deputy Maritime Logistics Officer Lieutenant Fred Bates and Assistant Maritime Logistics Officer and Lieutenant Roger Jolly prepare supplies. They can deliver and recover people and vehicles from shore. Choules was bought as an emergency stopgap measure after the navy admitted an embarrassing capability gap when it was incapable of assisting relief efforts in Queensland after Cyclone Yasi in 2011.“Climate change is predicted to make disasters more extreme and more common,” Australia’s Defence Chief Angus Campbell warned a government gathering last year.“Deploying troops on numerous disaster relief missions, at the same time, may stretch our capability and capacity. But not before making vital contributions to Pacific relief operations – and the aftermath of the Banda Aceh tsunami in 2005The two new Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships were declared fully operational in November after four years of training, exercising and fault rectification.“The LHDs have not only played key roles in Navy’s enhanced regional activities … but also functioned as key enablers for the multinational Exercise Talisman Sabre, projecting forces ashore by air and sea.
They have recently achieved Final Operating Capability, and we can now say we are one of the world’s premier amphibious forces,” Fleet Commander, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead declared last month.They join HMAS Choules, the former British HMS Largs Bay, as our largest warships and frontline disaster relief assets. Picture: Sunday Telegraph/Gaye GerardIt is huge. HMAS Canberra recently took time out of Fleet Certification Period 2020 to emulate the conditions encountered by the Royal Australian Navy during Operation BUSHFIRE ASSIST 19-20, and build on lessons learnt through conducting a Defence Assistance to Civil Communities exercise.. As part of Canberra’s Unit Readiness Evaluation, the Canberra Class LHD ‘evacuated’ approximately 500 role …
But critics say these huge amphibious assault ships were built to fight the last war. HMAS Canberra played a starring role in Sydney’s Australia Day celebrations as the centrepiece of the traditional Salute to Australia on Sydney Harbour.
Picture: AAP/Supplied by the Department of Defence, Leo BaumgartnerIt has six spaces on its vast deck to recover and launch helicopters concurrently.It has internal parking for up to 110 vehicles, and four small landing craft to carry them.It can comfortably accommodate 1100 troops with all their combat equipment.Equally important, HMAS Adelaide has extensive communications and command facilities from which to co-ordinate large scale, complicated operations.Australia’s navy has gathered extensive experience in using its landing helicopter dock in disaster relief.In 2019, HMAS Adelaide visited the Solomon Islands to test its capabilities with New Zealand in exercise Render Safe.In 2016, HMAS Canberra’s very first operational mission was to rush relief efforts to Fiji after Cyclone Winston. Based on the Buque de Proyección Estratégica (Strategic Projection Ship) design by Spanish shipbuilders Navantia. HMAS Adelaide (LHD 02) has been playing a pivotal role in the Navy's contribution to Operation Bushfire Assist alongside HMAS Choules and MV Sycamore demonstrating the capability offered by the vessel and its sister, HMAS Canberra. These were delivered to wrecked wharves and remote beaches by the ship’s landing craft. It is designed for wars – but Australia’s largest navy vessel has now set off on a very different mission that’s much closer to home.With 400 personnel embarked and 400 tonnes of emergency relief supplies on board, HMAS Adelaide III departed Sydney.HMAS Adelaide heading out of Sydney on its latest mission – to help victims of the bushfire crisis.
Based on the Spanish Juan Carlos I, the 27,000 ton Canberra s can make 21 knots and sport a ski-jump flight deck. But also the way forces fight.“Although humanitarian operations and infrastructure are important security considerations, the debate has focused on externalising the problem and not forcing the military to critically examine its capabilities through the prism of the complex and rapidly approaching changes to climate.”In essence, heightened temperatures, more intense and frequent storms, changing winds, increased ocean acidification and higher UV levels – to name just a few – will also “adversely impact Defence capability”. Canberra’s air quality is the worst out of any major city in the world due to smoke from bushfires along the NSW south coast. It carried hundreds of tons of emergency supplies, 350 army engineers to help repair vital infrastructure, and a fleet of earthmoving vehicles and heavy equipment. Picture: Sunday Telegraph/ Gaye GerardBut critics say these huge amphibious assault ships were built to fight the last war.Their precursors were incredibly useful in the island-hopping campaigns of World War II. It is a floating airfield for a fleet of helicopters. Topic: HMAS Canberra (L02) Confirming Canberra’s ready to aid. But things were simpler then.In an era of swarms of supersonic missiles, near-silent submarines and ultra-long-range bombers, they risk being floating coffins for thousands of troops.