Source: Zhczyj Tian Shuo Observer of the Observatory Think Tank
Recently, the mainland's second Type 075 amphibious assault ship, the Guangxi Ship, carried out multi-subject combat training at sea.
On the deck, under the command of the flight guide, several carrier-based helicopters completed continuous take-off and landing training. On the surface of the sea, hovercraft loading and unloading training also began quickly. In addition, the "Guangxi Ship" and the "Chagan Lake Ship" also formed a supply formation, and two huge ships of 10,000 tons were replenished during the voyage.
Amphibious assault ships are large offensive surface ships in the Navy that are second only to aircraft carriers in tonnage, and the two are similar in appearance. For a long time, amphibious assault ships have been favored by the navies of various countries with their excellent tactical flexibility and strong delivery capabilities, which can be described as the "second master of the fleet".
So, how did it develop? What exactly does it do? What are the national equipment?
1 Vertical landing, very popular
Amphibious assault ships, also known as amphibious assault ships. The term "amphibious" in this designation refers to its ability to deliver landing forces from the air and sea to the target area. The advent of the amphibious assault ship in the 1950s was the product of a combination of post-World War II amphibious landing operational theory and operational needs and the rapid development of helicopter technology.
At first, the need for landing ships was simple: to be able to get people and equipment ashore. The Messenger of Hope, used by the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 1916, is generally considered to be the first landing ship in history. The ship was converted from a flat-bottomed cargo ship with little attack and defense capabilities, and was in fact a "troop carrier". After that, the demand for landing ships in various countries in the world began to increase, requiring them to have a certain amount of firepower to defend themselves and cover the landing forces to seize the beach.
During World War II, the Allies carried out a series of landing battles, from North Africa to Normandy, to Sicily and the Western Pacific, which became larger and larger, the voyage distance became farther and farther, and amphibious landing equipment developed rapidly in the war, but many inconveniences were also found in actual combat.
Amphibious landing operations have attacked the strongholds of the water, there are very few beaches suitable for landing operations, and the repeated scrambles for inter-shore beachheads, protracted and arduous battles and staggering battle damage and casualties have not only put forward urgent needs for how to strengthen fire support for amphibious operations, especially air fire support, but also prompted people to think about how to avoid the limitations of traditional plane landing operations.
After World War II, the increasing maturity of helicopter technology fundamentally changed the traditional mode of troop projection. The U.S. military has tried helicopters to drop troops vertically in the Korean battlefield. The Suez Canal War of 1956 set a precedent for the large-scale use of helicopters in amphibious operations. The Royal Navy converted two light carriers, the Ocean and Theseus, into helicopter carriers carrying 450 commandos and 22 helicopters, and carried out the world's first vertical landing operation in Port Said, Egypt.
Since then, helicopters have been widely used in amphibious operations, and countries around the world have begun to build amphibious assault ships or rebuild aircraft carriers for amphibious landing operations. The early amphibious assault ships were essentially helicopter carriers, and the specially built amphibious assault ships after that also largely carried the characteristics of aircraft carriers, the most intuitive thing is that the two resembled each other, with a large hull, all-access deck, islands, large hangars and supporting lifts. These characteristics have made the amphibious assault ship known as a "quasi-aircraft carrier", and it has also been called "small flat top".
Amphibious assault ships are specially designed for landing operations and delivering landing forces. Its carrier-based aircraft are dominated by helicopters and vertical/stub-landing fighters, and can also provide air and surface fire support to landing forces. In order to land combat tasks, amphibious assault ships have adopted more special designs such as high dryboard, dock cabin, and vehicle cabin in the overall layout.
2 The United States, explore first
In the 1950s, with the development of helicopter technology, the United States put forward the concept of "vertical encirclement" landing operations: that is, some landing troops and equipment should be equipped with air delivery forces such as carrier-based helicopters to quickly carry out vertical airborne operations in the deep areas behind the enemy's coast and carry out the first wave of landing operations.
This not only avoided the hard-hitting and hard-hitting of the beach-grabbing landing battle, greatly reduced the casualties of the landing personnel, but also diversified the landing operation style, and the defense became extremely difficult. Compared with horizontal landings, vertical landings are easier to achieve combat surprise, and can be landed more quickly to gain a foothold, creating conditions for large-scale landings.
The United States immediately began to convert World War II aircraft carriers into amphibious assault ships and conducted the earliest vertical attack tests. These modified ships provided a valuable transition to the construction of the first generation of Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships. From 1955 to 1961, the U.S. military modified five ships, and like the Iwo Jima class, the number was LPH (Landing Platform Helicopter).
In 1958, the United States began to build the first generation of amphibious assault ships, the "Iwo Jima" class. The first ship entered service in August 1961 and a total of seven ships were built. The ship is about 180 meters long, about 31 meters wide, has a full load displacement of less than 20,000 tons, can carry about 20 helicopters, and a Marine Corps reinforcement battalion of about 2,000 people. But the biggest drawback is that there is no docking bay, and it is impossible to configure landing craft to carry large combat equipment. This also means that soldiers cannot be effectively supported by heavy fire after landing on the ground, and are easily suppressed by enemy fire.
Dissatisfied with amphibious landing capabilities, the U.S. Navy launched the second generation of the Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship (LHA) (Landing Helicopter Assault), which built five between 1971 and 1980. The ship is about 250 meters long and about 32 meters wide, and the full load displacement has reached an unprecedented 40,000 tons, which is close to the displacement of a medium-sized aircraft carrier. This class of amphibious assault ships integrates the functions of dock landing ships, for the first time added dock design, can use horizontal landing and vertical landing two ways of coordinated operations, to achieve the concept of "balanced loading, formation transportation", but also can carry AV-8B Harrier vertical take-off and landing fighter, is regarded as the pioneering work of modern professional amphibious assault ships. At the same time, the ship has the combat command capability of the amphibious assault group, and can command the amphibious assault group to operate independently or cooperate with the aircraft carrier battle group and the surface ship battle group to carry out expeditionary strike tasks. At present, both generations of amphibious assault ships have been retired.
In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Navy based on new landing tools such as air-cushioned landing craft and MV-22 Osprey rotorcraft, proposed the "Hyper horizon" landing combat theory, and the third generation of "Wasp" class came into being (LHD, Helicopter Dock). Before the advent of the American class, the Wasp class was the world's largest tonnage and most advanced amphibious assault ship, close in size to the previous class. It is equipped with more advanced helicopters, MV-22s, the latest air cushion landing craft (LCAC) and AV-8B, etc., and can carry out "over-the-horizon" amphibious assaults at a high speed of 40-200 knots from 50 nautical miles away from the enemy shore. It is precisely because it is equipped with more types of carrier-based aircraft, so that it can add or subtract different models when performing different combat tasks, and the composition of airborne aircraft is more flexible.
The inaugural ship, The Wasp, was commissioned in July 1988 and was built in eight (the No. 6 ship, The Good Guy Richard, caught fire in July 2020 and was scrapped) and is currently the main force of the U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ships. Because it can also perform tasks similar to aircraft carriers when necessary, many people call it the reserve aircraft carrier force of the United States.
On July 14, 2020, at the Naval Base in San Diego, California, THE UNITED States, helicopters participated in the fire extinguishing of the USS Good Guy Richard, an amphibious assault ship of the U.S. Navy.
The latest generation of "America" class first ship "USS America" has officially entered service in October 2014, the No. 2 ship "Tripoli" entered service in July 2020, and ship 3 is under construction, with 11 planned construction.
The ship is 257 meters long, 32 meters wide, and has an unprecedented displacement of 45,000 tons, which is comparable to the tonnage of the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Compared to the Wasp class, the biggest feature of the first two ships of the American class is the cancellation of the docking cabin design, and instead the extension of the internal hangar deck to provide more space for the aircraft. The third vessel under construction has resumed the docking design.
Because of the wide variety of carrier-based aircraft (MV-22B, F-35B, CH-53K, UH-1Y, AH-1Z, MH-60S), the "American" class can accommodate multi-mission needs. When amphibious landing missions are required, a larger number of Osprey transport aircraft and transport helicopters can be carried, supplemented by a small number of attack helicopters and F-35B fighters; When air supremacy is required and enemy defense systems are destroyed, AV-Harrier fighters or F-35Bs can be used as temporary small aircraft carriers; Joining the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier formation is equivalent to allowing the U.S. Navy, which already has 11 aircraft carriers, to add a number of medium-sized aircraft carriers, further expanding its operational advantages. The multi-purpose of the "American" class is further reflected here.
Although the "American" class cannot be equipped with many auxiliary models such as early warning aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, and unmanned tankers like large aircraft carriers to obtain sufficient battlefield situation information because of the lack of catapults and blocking cables, the F-35B's stealth performance, ability to collect and distribute a large amount of battlefield environmental data, and ability to carry out electromagnetic interference and strikes against the enemy have greatly enriched the US Marine Corps' choice of combat mode.
3 United Kingdom, weak follow-up
Since helicopters were first used in amphibious assaults in the Suez Canal War in 1956, the United Kingdom converted two centaur-class light carriers due to the good performance of two converted helicopter carriers, which entered service in 1962.
In the 1960s, the FearlessClass dock landing ship was born, consisting of two ships, HMS Fearless (commissioned in November 1965) and HMS Intrepid (commissioned in March 1967). This class is a specially built ship of the Royal Navy for amphibious combat missions, with an internal docking cabin that delivers landing power by landing craft and helicopters. During the Falklands War, the "No Fear" played an important role and was the key to landing on San Carlos Island.
However, the British Navy believes that the combat capability of amphibious warships still has great limitations, which is one of the important reasons for the serious casualties in landing operations. In response to future local wars and occasional events, the British Navy planned to develop a new amphibious warship, later the HMS Ocean amphibious assault ship. The ship is 203 meters long, 35 meters wide, and has a full load displacement of more than 21,000 tons. Due to its use of a large number of civilian ship standards and technologies, the cost is only equivalent to a frigate, but the overall protection capacity has decreased to a certain extent. The amphibious assault ship "Ocean" entered service in September 1998 and retired in March 2018, before being sold to Brazil as a naval flagship and renamed "Atlantic".
The UK currently has two active Sons of Poseidon class amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. The two ships entered service in 2003 and 2004 and had a displacement of 20,000 tons.
Although Britain was the first country to build an aircraft carrier and the first to operate vertically, due to the sharp decline in British national strength and the lack of financial resources after the war, Britain did not have much to achieve in naval construction, especially amphibious assault ships. For the current amphibious combat capabilities of the British Royal Navy, the British "Save the Royal Navy" website published an article entitled "The Royal Navy's Amphibious Combat Capabilities are Worrying". According to the article, the three core combat capabilities of the British Royal Navy are sea-based nuclear deterrence capabilities, aircraft carrier strike capabilities and amphibious combat capabilities. The construction of the first two types of combat capabilities has received more attention, which has made amphibious combat capacity building a bit neglected. In recent years, the British Royal Navy has gradually reduced its combat strength and financial investment, and some voices in the United Kingdom believe that the operational concept of these two types of active amphibious assault ships is outdated, and related technologies have become outdated, making it difficult to play an important role in future wars.
4 France, the momentum is gaining momentum
After the 1990s, the French Navy had only four amphibious combat ships left for maritime warfare – two Lightning-class dock landing ships commissioned in the 1990s and two Storm-class amphibious assault ships commissioned in the 1960s. In addition, there is a helicopter carrier "Joan of Arc" built in 1964, which is too old to carry out amphibious combat missions. In order to further enhance amphibious combat capabilities, the French Naval Shipbuilding Agency implemented the multifunctional amphibious assault ship program in 1997.
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe (first from right) inspects a Northwest Wind-class amphibious assault ship near Toulon in southern France on September 30, 2017.
The first ships of the Northwest Wind class entered service in 2005 and a total of 5 ships were built, including 3 from the French Navy. The other two were originally ordered by Russia and would be the first foreign warships acquired by the Russian Navy, but the order was cancelled due to the Crimean crisis in 2014 and was eventually resold to Egypt. With a length of 199 meters, a width of 32 meters and a full load displacement of more than 21,000 tons, the class is the first ship of the French Navy to adopt an integrated electric propulsion system, with a maximum speed of about 19 knots.
In terms of hull structure, the "Northwest Wind" class integrates the functions of helicopter carriers, dock landing ships and dock transport ships, but it is significantly smaller than the "Wasp" class in terms of size, which also causes its carrying capacity to be much weaker. The ship can carry more than 16 NH-90 helicopters or Tiger gunships, and the space inside the ship can accommodate more than 70 vehicles containing 13 main battle tanks, or a tank battalion plus 450 soldiers.
In terms of hull, the first half of the ship is built according to civilian specifications, and the second half is built in military specifications, which reduces the cost of shipbuilding and saves construction time, but inevitably reduces the strength of the warship. In addition, although there is a draft of 6.3 meters, the part above the waterline is still very high, and its waterline to deck height is even close to the height of the waterline of the Modern-class destroyer to the main mast, because of the problem of the center of gravity, such a towering hull has certain ocean-going seaworthiness problems.
Despite its limitations, the ship also has remarkable features. In order to enhance the ability to resist damage, it adopts a double-layer hull structure, the island and mast are closed design, the chimney is integrated behind the rear mast structure, and some structures deliberately use composite materials that can absorb radar waves, effectively reducing the overall radar cross-sectional area and infrared signal.
In practice, since its service, the Northwest Wind class has been involved in a large number of military operations and peacekeeping missions. In 2006, israel launched military operations against Palestinian forces in Lebanon, and France sent four warships to the Lebanese coast to protect the safety of EU citizens and withdraw from the war zone, including the evacuation of 1,375 refugees by the Northwest Wind. In 2007, as soon as the 2nd ship Raiden completed its maiden voyage, it participated in the United Nations "Unicorn" peacekeeping operation in Côte d'Ivoire, successfully intercepting 5.7 tons of drugs in the Gulf of Guinea. The 3rd ship Dixmead successfully completed its mission to transport the French 92nd Marine Regiment to Mali in 2013.
5 Spain, go your own way
Compared with the clear classification of ships in other countries, the "Juan Carlos I" is different, and Spain has named it "Strategic Delivery Ship". The ship is designed with a docking cabin and all-access deck that meets the characteristics of an amphibious assault ship, and a ski-jump platform at the front of the deck, incorporating the characteristics of a light aircraft carrier.
Aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I of the Spanish Navy, 30 November 2010.
This design occurred because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the chances of a frontal conflict at sea in the fleet plummeted, and the need for troop projection to the conflict area or humanitarian relief increased significantly.
Its national strength did not allow it to build a new aircraft carrier and a new amphibious assault ship at the same time, considering that amphibious assault ships and light aircraft carriers have many things in common, Spain made a compromise in the design of the new ship, and the strategic delivery ship "Juan Carlos I" was born.
The ship was delivered to the Spanish Navy in September 2010, briefly fulfilling the Spanish Navy's twin-carrier dream. However, due to the continued economic downturn and severe cuts in the defense budget, the 400 million euro upgrade plan of Spain's only light aircraft carrier, the Principe de Asturias, was completely abandoned before being officially decommissioned in February 2013. The Juan Carlos I once again became the "only seedling" of the Western Naval aircraft carrier.
With a length of 230 meters, a width of 32 meters, a full load displacement of 27,000 tons, and a maximum speed of 20.5 knots, the ship was the first ship of the Spanish Navy to use all-electric propulsion. Its ship's interior space can carry 100 light vehicles or 46 main battle tanks, while accommodating 2 LCC air cushion landing craft or 4 LCM-8/LCM-1E landing craft, hangar space can carry 12 medium helicopters or 8 F-35B fighter jets, and can carry 900 soldiers to land. When used as a light carrier, the ship can carry about 20 AV-8B and F-35B fighters. Such a delivery ability can not be described as powerful.
Spain has embarked on a path suitable for its own aircraft carrier in combination with its specific national conditions and use needs, which can be described as an extremely successful practice in the "small country aircraft carrier". It is also because of the successful design that the ship has also been successfully exported.
6 Italy, the largest tonnage in Europe
Italy is located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by many islands, the geographical position is superior, there is no need for ocean-going deployment, so the concept of developing large ships is not very strong, and it is more accustomed to using a large number of small and medium-sized warships.
In September 1985, Italy's first aircraft carrier, The Garibaldi, was completed and commissioned, with a full load displacement of only about 14,000 tons. Later, from 1988 to 1994, Italy successively built three "San Giorgio" class amphibious dock landing ships with a tonnage of less than 8,000 tons, each carrying only 3-5 helicopters, 3 mechanized personnel landing craft and 440 soldiers. This is obviously because the main ports in the Mediterranean are relatively close to each other, do not require ocean-going deployment capabilities, and have regional characteristics, but they give the Italian Navy a regional force projection capability. In 2001, taking into account the gradual backwardness of the performance of the "Garibaldi", Italy began to build the 30,000-ton "Cavour" aircraft carrier, which after the ship entered service in 2008, the Italian Navy had a dual-carrier formation plus 3 amphibious dock ships, undoubtedly becoming the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean region.
In 2006, Italy's Defense White Paper announced plans for the design and construction of a new multi-role amphibious assault ship to replace the aging San Giorgio class and maintain the Italian Navy's superiority in amphibious force projection in the Mediterranean. Dragged until 2018, the amphibious assault ship Trieste was officially launched and launched in May 2019, and is expected to officially enter service this year to succeed the Garibaldi. For the Italian Navy, it supported the "façade" of the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean.
According to the data, the "Trieste" is 245 meters long, 36 meters wide, and has a full load displacement of 33,000 tons, making it the largest amphibious assault ship in Europe and the largest warship built by Italy after World War II, second only to its 45,000-ton "Veneto" class battleships during World War II. It is also the world's first amphibious assault ship to adopt a twin-ship island design.
In addition to being able to carry various types of helicopters, armored vehicles and landing craft, the ship can also carry F35-B fighters, which can not only be competent for the duties of amphibious assault ships, but also can be used as light aircraft carriers when necessary, with strong mission flexibility, which is undoubtedly another fresh force for NATO, which is constantly strengthening the construction of amphibious forces.
In addition to the above-mentioned countries, Australia proposed a development plan for "multi-role auxiliary ships" in 2000 and announced in 2003 that it would purchase two multi-role amphibious assault ships. In June 2007, in the bidding for Australia's new generation of amphibious assault ships, due to the characteristics of both amphibious assault ships and light aircraft carriers, the ship defeated the French "Northwest Wind Class" and won the order.
The first ships of the Canberra class, HMS Canberra and HMS Adelaide, 2, entered service in November 2014 and December 2015 respectively, and are australia's largest ever surface vessels. The commissioning of the two amphibious assault ships has greatly improved the Australian Navy's ability to deliver troops and maintained a maritime deterrent capability to neighboring countries.
In 2013, turkey's Defense Industry Authority announced that it would entrust a team of the country's private shipyard Sedev and Spain's Navantia company to build an amphibious assault ship based on the "Juan Carlos I" as the new flagship of the Turkish Navy. In May 2019, the Anadolu was launched.
7 China, thick accumulation and thin hair
The mainland currently has two of the latest Type 075 amphibious assault ships in service , the "Hainan Ship" and the "Guangxi Ship", and the third one has also been launched, but this is not a one-time success. In December 2006, the mainland first developed the Type 071 integrated dock landing ship, with a tonnage of about 20,000 tons, which can carry various types of armored vehicles and helicopters, and is the first amphibious ship with three-dimensional landing combat capabilities of the Mainland Navy.
Because of the high cost performance, the mainland built 8 ships in one go. However, the 071 type dock landing ship does not have an all-access deck after all, only has two parking positions at the stern, and pays more attention to sea landing, and the comprehensive combat effectiveness is still inferior to that of a serious amphibious assault ship. In 2011, the Navy began to plan and demonstrate the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which was officially developed in 2013 and officially started construction in 2017. The first ship, the Hainan Ship, was officially commissioned on April 23, 2021, and the second Guangxi Ship was publicly unveiled on April 21, 2022.
As the first amphibious assault ship independently developed by the mainland, the "Hainan Ship" and the "Guangxi Ship" are equipped with direct decks and docks, with a tonnage of 40,000 tons, and can carry amphibious armored vehicles, multi-type helicopters, hovercraft and tank armored vehicles, and have full three-dimensional landing combat capabilities. It can form an amphibious strike group with 071 and play a major role in island warfare and amphibious delivery. Coupled with the cooperation with land-based aviation and aircraft carrier battle groups, our army has formed a stronger joint combat capability in the process of seizing the island.
The Type 075 amphibious assault ship can also carry out diversified war and non-war military operations in the multi-domain battlefield space such as land, sea and air, which greatly expands the scope of the people's navy's missions and plays an irreplaceable role in displaying the national image, controlling the geopolitical crisis, and shaping the surrounding situation.
Its completion is of landmark significance to enhancing the mainland's amphibious combat capability and improving the combat system. It can be said that it is precisely because of the batch service of the Type 075 amphibious assault ship that the People's Navy truly has the ability to carry out large-scale amphibious combat tasks. Therefore, the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, like the aircraft carrier, is a well-deserved strategic ship, and its significance in joining the Navy is no less than that of an aircraft carrier.
In addition, its emergence fills the gap in the formation of naval ships, marking a new era in the development of surface ships of the Chinese Navy. Because of its complex design, the shipbuilding process is demanding and expensive, making it a large surface ship second only to the difficulty of building an aircraft carrier. So far, the only countries that can build a large amphibious assault ship similar to the Type 075 are China and the United States.
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Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Li Linwei Caption Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Xu Jiamin
题图说明：2019年5月1日，停靠在美国圣迭戈的美国海军“拳师”号两栖攻击舰。 Source: Author: Lookout Think Tank