BMT is offering its Ellida logistics ship design for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN’s) SEA 2200 joint support ship project.
A spokesperson for BMT told AMR at the Indo-Pacific 2022 exhibition in Sydney that the company is bidding for the project and that its Ellida family of vessels are a cost-effective solution for logistics support and amphibious operations.
Under the SEA 2200 programme, the RAN wants to procure two 16,500t joint support ships for between $3-4 billion that have roll-on/roll-off capabilities to transport cargo and conduct replenishment-at-sea operations and must be equipped with a well-deck.
The Ellida family of ship designs was launched by BMT in 2019 and utilise reconfigurable spaces to optimise their role to serve different functions. The spokesperson said that these include amphibious landings using the well-deck, strategic transportation of bulk military supplies, medical support up to Role 2 or Role 3, replenishment of solid stores at sea or to land forces and the ability to conduct humanitarian and disaster relief missions or non-combatant evacuation operations.
For logistics support the larger Ellida 200 design has two helicopter spots on a flight deck positioned aft to allow for vertical replenishment operations by air. The ship has port and starboard delivery stations for replenishment-at-sea (RAS). It also has an enclosed vehicle deck with up to 700 metres of space for military vehicles that can access the ship via a side door and ramp.
A lower holding area features an additional 176m of space for lighter vehicles, cargo or fuel and on the weather deck there is stowage for 24 containers or 200m lanes of vehicle storage. The well-deck can host two landing craft of the size of its Caimen 90 fast landing craft utility (LCU) and davits can support the launch and recovery of smaller boats and fast craft.
BMT has developed the design through its experience providing the Aegir design for the UK Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Royal Norwegian Navy.
by Tim Fish
