A loaded deck

But neither new carrier or Sea Harrier were to be.

One of the very first acts of the new Hawke Labor government, elected in March 1983, was to drop plans for a new carrier, fundamentally because it was too expensive and there were other new capabilities on the way with a stronger claim on limited funds.

With Melbourne to be retired and no new carrier on the way, there was no need for Sea Harrier or for a fixed wing naval aviation capability, and so it has remained to this day.

But 40 years on the navy has two vessels, HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide, which certainly look like aircraft carriers. At 27,000 tonnes, each is considerably larger than Melbourne (20,000 tonnes) and are by far the Australian navy’s largest ever vessels.

Each vessel, termed a Landing Helicopter Dock – or LHD – has a very substantial aviation capability, though at this stage only for helicopters, not fixed wing aircraft.

But 40 years on the Navy has two amphibious assault ships which certainly look like aircraft carriers.

So could the LHDs operate fixed wing aircraft, specifically F-35B, the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter.

That’s been debated back and forth for more than a decade.

At this time, the final word is the 2016 Defence White Paper which makes no mention of acquiring F-35B but does say capacity for amphibious operations will be enhanced and LHD sensors, countermeasures and weapons will be improved.

HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide are siblings of the Spanish Armada’s Spain’s Juan Carlos I which flies Harriers and maybe also fly F-35B if Spain so desired.

Australia’s LHD’s retain the ski jump for launching of STOVL aircraft. It’s generally explained that it would have cost more to redesign the vessel to get rid of the ski jump design.

Australia is firmly committed to buying up to 100 F-35 aircraft but specifically the conventional take of and landing F-35A variant as the backbone of the RAAF’s future air combat capability. The first of these aircraft arrive in Australia late next year.

Much of the infrastructure and arrangements for long term F-35A sustainment are in place or soon will be.

But F-35B is a different beast, more complex and costly complex than F-35A.

Should a future government decide the RAN needed F-35B – perhaps once this type has a track record from operations with the US Marine Corps and Royal Navy – it could certainly do so.

The challenges wouldn’t be trivial but neither would they be insurmountable and various analysts point to the significant capability F-35B could bring for future operations.

In a recent post for the airpower thinktank the Sir Richard Williams foundation, analyst Steve George, who served aboard HMS Invincible during the Falklands War, said F-35 would deliver a game-changing capability.

“Surely, as F-35B equipped US LHAs and LHDs (and possibly the UK’s Queen Elizabeth class-carriers) become increasingly common visitors to the China/Pacific region, the ADF will have to look again at how it might develop an ability to more freely deploy its main striking force at long range. Or how it might protect its surface forces against developing air threats,” he wrote.

Mr George said F-35B operated from LHD would provide a strike capability independent of land-based aircraft, possibly operating at extreme range, or aircraft operating from coalition vessels.

Proponents of land-based air power say airborne refuelling allows combat aircraft to operate far from home but George cites current experiences of Operation Okra where RAAF aircraft spend more time transiting to and from bases in the United Arab Emirates than they do over Iraq or Syria.
However Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Dr Andrew Davies isn’t convinced.

He said the navy could only operate F-35B from the LHDs with huge cost and great complexity as there would be very significant under-deck requirements which could exceed LHD capacity.

While the Spanish operate Harriers from their LHDs, Dr Davies notes that F-35 produces around twice the thrust.

“Both the Americans and the British plan to operate F-35B off their big-deck carriers. I am not aware that anyone has a plan to operate them off the smaller ones or off the ski jump. You couldn’t wake up one morning and decide you wanted an F-35B on your LHDs.”

Australia has experienced a long and turbulent aircraft carrier journey.

Carriers played a crucial role in the Pacific War and the Australian government structured the Royal Australian Navy as a carrier force, initially planning for three carriers, though it ended up with two, both surplus Royal Navy vessels.

HMAS Sydney arrived in 1948, saw action in Korea, transported troops to Vietnam, and was paid off in 1973. HMAS Melbourne was constructed in the UK at the tail end of World War II, commissioned into the RAN in 1955 and finally decommissioned on May 30, 1982.

Sadly, Melbourne is best known for a pair of accidents, sinking destroyer HMAS Voyager in a collision in 1964 and US destroyer Frank E Evans in another collision 1969.

As Melbourne approached end of life, the Navy pushed hard for a replacement.

But the government of Malcolm Fraser came to believe that what would be most useful was a helicopter carrier which could also support STOVL aircraft such as Harrier, rather than the big deck vessel the Navy favoured.

In 1980, then Defence Minister Jim Killen announced Melbourne was to be replaced with the (unspecified) new vessel to initially operate only helicopters. A decision on a fixed wing capability was deferred to 1983.

The government shortlisted two vessels, the US Litton-Ingalls Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) vessel and the Spanish Empressa Nacional Sea Control Ship.

The UK’s Invincible-class carriers were initially dismissed as too big and expensive, right up to July 1981 when the UK government declared their new carrier HMS Invincible surplus and available for the bargain price of $285 million.

That was too good a deal to pass on and in February 1982 the government announced it would buy Invincible. Then along came the Falklands War, in which Invincible and her Sea Harriers played a major role, convincing the UK it needed to keep its carriers.

The UK did offer the 30-year-old HMS Hermes for sale or lease, or a new Invincible-class carrier for $760 million for delivery in 1989. But by 1983, the Fraser government was cooling to carriers because of their costs and manpower requirements.

Defence minister Ian Sinclair said a new carrier, plus helicopters and aircraft would cost about $1500 million to acquire and $80 million a year to operate. Putting that in perspective the 1982-83 defence budget was about $4.5 billion, with some big purchases looming, including new F/A-18 Hornets for the RAAF.

Only the Navy pushed for a carrier, citing a range of reasons including protection of shipping, air defence maritime strike, power projection and deterrence.

Other service chiefs and top defence officials believed a carrier offered no significant advantage over other systems such as helicopters operating from existing ships or land-based aircraft supported by in-flight refuelling.

All through this time, there was a strong belief that Australia would buy the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. The UK also pushed its 8000-tonne Vosper Thornycroft Harrier Carrier.

In a lengthy report in the Australian Aviation edition number one, the company cites the many benefits of the revolutionary Harrier capability.

That included the ability to mount a combat air patrol, reconnaissance, maritime strike and close air support of ground forces. It could even lay a line of sonobuoys or air drop an anti-submarine torpedo within six minutes and 50 kilometres of launch.

All missions could be conducted while at sea or in port.

But with the carrier cancelled, any Harrier deal evaporated. Neither was there any need for most of the rest of the Fleet Air Arm.

With Melbourne decommissioned, the RAN’s 10 remaining A4 Skyhawks (of 20 ordered) were transferred to HMAS Albatross at Nowra and in mid-1984 they were sold to New Zealand for $28 million.

The Navy’s remaining Grumman S-2 Tracker aircraft were also sold off, with most going to the US firm United Aeronautical Corporation, a company which specialises in aircraft spare parts.

However, the need for much of what a carrier could do remained. In 1994, Australia purchased two surplus US Navy landing platform amphibious (LPA) vessels which became HMAS Manoora and HMAS Kanimbla.

Both required extensive repair work, arrived too late for the 1999 East Timor mission and retired early but proved supremely useful for a range of missions.

East Timor was a complete success but demonstrated shortcomings in ADF capability, especially the ability to conduct and support a maritime operation.

In 2003, the then coalition government launched plans to acquire two big new amphibious landing ships and in 2007, Spanish shipbuilder Navantia was declared the winner.

The hulls of both vessels were constructed at Navantia’s shipyard at Ferrol, Spain with superstructure added at the BAE Systems Australia facility at Williamstown, Melbourne.

HMAS Canberra was commissioned on November 28, 2014 and HMAS Adelaide on December 4, 2015.

With a 4750 square metre flight deck, Canberra and Adelaide can operate the full range of ADF helicopters, including MRH-90 Taipan, CH-47 Chinook, Black Hawk, Tiger and MH-60R Romeo.

The flight deck features six spots for simultaneous operation of MRH-90 or Black Hawk.

This very significant aviation capability has taken Australia nearly full circle to the days when the Navy was designed around carriers.

The two LHDs allow the ADF to conduct cyclone relief in North Queensland, deliver humanitarian assistance to a Pacific neighbour or transport troops to a regional hotspot and support them, on the ground – and much more.

This very significant capability has taken Australia nearly full circle.

All this new and expanded capability did not arrive without hard work.

Long before the LHDs entered service, there was considerable thought on how to make best use of these new vessels and their ability to project power.
The Townsville-based 2nd Battalion (2RAR) was configured as the Army’s designated amphibious unit.

In September-October 2015, the ADF conducted exercises with HMAS Canberra off North Queensland to establish a baseline amphibious capability to conduct humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and to safely evacuate Australians from a regional trouble spot.

Since then the capability has substantially expanded. Canberra deployed to Fiji following Cyclone Winston which hit on February 20 last year, devastating that island nation.

Commander Adrian Capner, Commander-Air aboard HMAS Canberra, said that allowed them to work through a range of issues.

“In Fiji we really stretched out the capability in an operational sense and that was excellent,” he said.

“Then when we went to RIMPAC last year in Hawaii and we were able to diversify, working with a whole range of aircraft from the US Navy, US Marines and US Army. Our aircrew went and operated on US ships.”

At RIMPAC, HMAS Canberra landed almost 800 troops and 100 vehicles in just over seven hours.

Earlier this year, HMAS Canberra conducted further flight trials for the MH-60R, MRH-90 but with a strong focus on the Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. Tiger trials were cut short because of ship maintenance issues and further work is needed.

That was to allow the Nowra-based Aircraft Maintenance Flight Trials Unit to prepare what are termed ship’s helicopter operating limits (SHOL). There’s a different SHOL for every different for aircraft, for each different flight deck spot for day and night.

“It’s common to all ships and Australia puts a lot of rigour into it. We don’t operate on Australian ships without having conducted a first of class flight trial to establish those limits,” CMDR Capner said.

“It’s all done by test pilots and flight test engineers and aeronautical systems qualified aircrew. It’s a very rigorous process and takes an amount of time but it’s such a capability enhancement when you know you can safely take off and land in those conditions.”

“It takes all the guesswork out of it.”

HMAS Canberra is fresh back from Exercise Talisman Saber 2017 (TS17), working with US Navy, USMC and New Zealand aircraft. That included US CH-53 and V-22 Osprey aircraft. One USMC V-22 was lost, plus three Marines, when it crashed into the sea when landing on the USS Bonhomme Richard.

CMDR Capner said the USMC deployed four V-22s to Talisman Saber, with two flying on and off HMAS Canberra during the exercise.

“As a group of guys they were really professional and we really enjoyed working with them and our heart goes out to them,” he said.

CMDR Capner said TS17 was their most complex exercise, involving the most troops put ashore by Australian in a very long time.

For embarked aviation capability, HMAS Canberra operated one Navy and four Army MRH-90 aircraft. Towards the end of TS17, it operated a pair of Chinooks for the first time.

CMDR Capner said HMAS Canberra had a proven capability to deliver defence aid to the civil community and humanitarian assistance.

“We have also proven we can operate with a full range of aircraft, embarked in and operating from the LHD, for an extended period of time. We sat off Fiji for six weeks with no impost on the local community,” he said.

“We are still maturing our procedures. We are still growing the envelopes. We need to do some more flight trials to really get the maximum benefit we can from the aircraft and the ship.”

ASPI’s Dr Davies said LHDs delivered a very significant capability as a helicopter carrier but it was also useful for roles “above and beyond the across the beach stuff.”

Australia is now in the process of deciding which new anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigate will replace the eight Anzac frigates.

Whichever contender is chosen – Navantia’s F-5000, BAE Systems Type 26 or Fincantieri’s FREMM – will come with advanced sensors but the key ASW capability remains the embarked helicopter, with its ability to roam far and fast, drop sonobuoys and use its dipping sonar to detect lurking subs.

A frigate can operate one helicopter, maybe two at a pinch. But a LHD could perhaps operate half a dozen simultaneously.

After two decades where ASW languished, mainly because of the disastrous Seasprite project, the Navy now has an excellent ASW helicopter, the MH-60R, possibly the most advanced in the world. The Navy took delivery of the last of 24 in September 2016.

Just what a LHD with embarked Romeos could bring to ASW was demonstrated in a recent study by ASPI analyst James Mugg who performed an intriguing computer simulation on ASW capabilities of different vessels with different numbers of helicopters.

A Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer, currently our most capable ASW vessel, loses 100 per cent of the time when it goes against a submarine without a helicopter. With one, it wins 30 per cent of the time.

A US Arleigh Burke with two wins 60 per cent of the time but a LHD with four helicopters wins 75 per cent of the time.

In some scenarios, both were sunk, with the ship able to send final sensor data to the orbiting helicopter to even the score. With no onboard sensors, a LHD is at a disadvantage here but not as much as other vessels with fewer helicopters.

“…the fact that an LHD, with no organic ASW sensors, but with four Seahawks performs even better than an Arleigh Burke with two tells you that ASW helicopters are probably the most valuable ASW capability you can put on a ship,” he concluded.

Dr Davies said in the real world, an LHD would likely be operating in conjunction with an AWD or ASW vessel with the full range of onboard sensors including the towed array for torpedo detection plus decoys.

“As part of a task group, a LHD with a whole bunch of helicopter landing spots gives you the opportunity to significantly improve your ASW,” he said.
CMDR Capner said the Navy was working up to this.

“What Canberra has is a very good command and control suite. To embark Seahawk Romeo aircraft on board and send them off to conduct ASW is very possible.”