Bay Class Alternative Landing Ship Logistics (ALSLs)

The Landing Ships Logistics (LSLs) of the ‘Sir Lancelot’ class have had a somewhat checkered history. The original six vessels were ordered by the Ministry of Transport for the British Army and were completed between 1964 and 1968. They were initially operated by the British Indian Steam Navigation Company (BISNCo) but were transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) in 1970. All six vessels served in the Falklands Conflict and two - Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram - were severely damaged. Sir Tristram was rebuilt to a slightly modified design while Sir Galahad was deemed beyond repair, and was replaced with a new vessel of the same name. With the disposal of Sir Lancelot in 1989, five vessels remained in service, three of which were in need of modernisation or replacement.

Sir Bedivere entered dockyard hands in late 1994 to begin a Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP), designed to extend her lifespan by a further fifteen years. Her hull was lengthened by 12 metres in order to increase troop carrying capacity and storage space, she was fitted with new engines and more powerful bow thrusters and her superstructure was remodeled to a ‘stealth’ design.

It was planned to modernise Sir Geraint and Sir Percivale along similar lines. However, the modernisation of Sir Bedivere had been more complicated and expensive than originally envisaged as the cost had escalated upon the discovery of severe corrosion. As this problem was also likely to be present in Sir Percivale and Sir Geraint, the decision was taken to build two new vessels instead.

The ALSL requirement was endorsed by the Strategic Defence Review which committed to providing specialist amphibious shipping for the Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF).

On April 14th 2000 five UK shipbuilders were invited to tender for the £130 million contract to design and build two Alternative Landing Ship Logistics (ALSLs), with an option for three more vessels at a later date. The five companies were:

On June 13th 2000 tenders were received from Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd, Swan Hunter (Tyneside) Ltd and BAE SYSTEMS Marine Ltd. Revised and confirmed bids were received on October 18th.

During the assessment of the tenders the Ministry of Defence (MoD) looked carefully at the strong operational reasons for replacing more of the ageing LSLs, including recent operating experiences in Sierra Leone and Mozambique. It concluded that replacing four vessels would provide better long term value for money than running a mixed fleet of two new ALSLs and three aging LSLs and consequently identified sufficient funding for two additional ALSLs.

The project took a major step forward on October 21st 2001 when the Ministry of Defence announced the preferred bidders. In order for the four vessels to enter service more quickly than serial construction by one shipyard would have allowed, the MoD decided that Swan Hunter would provide lead yard services, produce the design and build two ships, while the other two ships would be built by BAE SYSTEMS Marine at their Govan shipyard.

The successful Swan Hunter design was based on the ‘Enforcer family’ of transportation vessels devised by Dutch shipbuilders Royal Schelde. Vessels in this series share the same basic design but range in size from 9,000 tons to 14,000 tons and can be specially configured to match the requirements of different navies. Tailored variants are already in service with the Dutch and Spanish navies and strong interest has been shown by several other European nations.

"Enforcer Series" - Amphibious Transport Docks
Nation	Ship	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Commissioned
Spain	Galicia	Empresa National Bazan	May 31 1996	July 21 1997	April 30 1998
Spain	Castilla	Empresa National Bazan	December 11 1997	June 14 1999	June 26 2001
Netherlands	Rotterdam	Schelde Shipbuilding	January 25 1996	February 22 1997	April 8 1998
Netherlands	Johan de Witt	Planned

On December 18th 2000 the Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Swan Hunter for the construction of the first two vessels, RFA Largs Bay and RFA Lyme Bay.

An MoD spokesperson explained "These names really reflect the fact that these ships will be used for amphibious warfare and will be used in bays such as Lyme and Largs". Largs Bay is situated on the Firth of Clyde, west of Glasgow, while Lyme Bay runs between Weymouth and Exmouth on the South Coast. Neither name had ever been used before, although a ship renamed Largs, a former French armed merchant cruiser, was used by Britain as a landing ship during the Second World War and served as the HQ for Sword beach in the British sector of the D-Day landings. These names have come under considerable criticism. Rumours suggested that the two ships were originally to be named Quiberon Bay and Abouikr Bay - both famous British naval victories over the French - until it was decided to opt for something a little more ‘politically correct’. Furthermore, members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary were said to be disappointed these ships did not commemorate their fallen colleagues by carrying the names of Falklands battles.

It was initially planned for work to commence at both yards in mid-2001. However, delays in receiving the required technical information from Dutch firm Royal Schelde meant Swan Hunter were unable to complete the structural plans necessary in order for work to commence. This delay contributed to a short term lack of work at Govan leading BAE to announce heavy redundancies. BAE then entered discussions with Swan Hunter over the possibility of bringing work on the two vessels forward. Swan Hunter indicated they were working to complete structural plans as quickly as they could so that steel cutting could commence at Govan without further delay.

Workers at Swan Hunter’s Wallsend yard began cutting steel for RFA Largs Bay on October 1st 2001 in a ceremony attended by the Chief of Defence Procurement, Sir Robert Walmsley. Although the yard has constructed oil production and storage vessels, Largs Bay will be the first true ship built on Tyneside since the completion of HMS Richmond in 1994. Swan Hunter will construct the two vessels in a giant new floating dock - completed in October 2001 - which allows ships to be launched at sea.

Meanwhile, the contract for the third and fourth vessels - named RFA Cardigan Bay and RFA Mounts Bay - was finally placed with BAE SYSTEMS Marine on November 19th 2001 and steel cutting began the following month.

The modernised Sir Bedivere is expected to remain in service with the four new Bay class vessels for the foreseeable future.

From an early stage it was envisaged that the new ships would be very different from the vessels they replaced: they would have greater storage space, a larger helicopter flight deck and the ability of offload an rough seas. It was also evident that they would not retain the ability to beach themselves. This capability was rarely used and additionally RFA Sir Geraint came close to sinking in 1998 when she started to take in water through her bow doors.

Specifications
Displacement	Deep displacement: 16,160-tonnes.
Dimensions	Length Overall: .176.6 metres Design Draught: .5.2 metres. Beam: .... ...........26.4 metres (32.2 metres including Mexifloats)
Speed	18 Knots (equivalent to that of HMS Ocean and the Albion Class LPDs)
Range	8000 nautical miles at 15 knots.
Complement	Approximately 60 RFA personnel.
Weapons and Decoys	Fitted to receive military weapons.
Propulsion	Diesel electric propulsion with bow thruster and azimuthing thrusters. Dynamic positioning system to be fitted.

The ships will be powered by diesel electric propulsion systems, in which large diesel generators provide power to electric motors. The electric motors will drive two steerable thrusters - the vessels will be the first large MoD ships to sail without rudders. This technology has previously been used by commercial construction vessels and some cruise ships and will provide the landing vessels with significant advantages. Firstly, they will be highly maneuverable- so much so that they will be able to turn around on the spot. This means that they will be able to remain stationary at sea without dropping anchor, even in poor weather conditions or strong currents, and they will be able to maneuver in harbour without assistance from tugboats. Secondly, the design will not require lengthy propeller shafts, thus creating more room for stores and equipment.

The ships will not have traditional funnels either. Instead, cooled exhaust from the diesel engines will be expelled through vents at the stern.

The design of the ALSL will enable them to offload/onload at sea in conditions up to Sea State 3, without the need to anchor, by using their enclosed floodable dock. Offload will be achieved by means of helicopters, mexefloats and landing craft

Main Features
Aircraft	Twin spot flight deck with limited facilities to transport and operate Merlin, Chinook and V22 Osprey.
Landing Craft	Fitted with a floodable dock sized to operate on LCU Mk 10. Carry and operate two LCVP Mk 5. Carry and operate two Mexeflotes.
Military Lift	Transport 350 troops. Transport about 1200 Linear metres of vehicles. 200 tonnes of war maintenance reserve. Carry 12 x 40 TEU or 24 x 24 TEU containers. Two upper deck cranes. Wide, uncluttered assault routes to allow fully-kitted troops unhindered passage to points of offload.
Command	Military communications.

The ALSLs will be built largely to commercial standards, incoperating widely used commercial marine equipment. Each vessel will comply with Lloyds Register of Shipping Classification requirements, the largest environmental legislation and as far as possible Class 1 Passenger Ship Certification.

The new ships are expected to be based at Marchwood Military Port, Southampton, in succession to the existing vessels.

Above: A computer generated impression of the Alternative Landing Ship Logistic (ALSL).

Above: The Bay class will bear more than a passing resemblance to the Dutch Amphibious Transport Ship (ATS) HMNLS Rotterdam (L800).

Above: RFA Sir Bedivere (L3004) pictured shortly after modernisation. Plans to rebuild RFA Sir Percivale and Sir Geriant along similar lines were abandoned and the decision to build new vessels was taken instead. © Crown Copyright.