Fleet Air Arm
Association of Australia
Landing Craft HMAS Tobruk
Sea King helicopter operating with the landing craft HMAS Tobruk
The heavy lift ship HMAS Tobruk is the first purpose-built major amphibious ship in the Royal Australian Navy providing the Australian Defence Force with a heavy lift capability not available in any other Australian-owned ship.The ship is a multi-purpose troop and roll-on/roll-off heavy vehicle carrier.
The design includes facilities for bow and stern loading, a drive-through capacity and inter-deck transfers via ramps.
It is capable of transporting 18 Leopard main battle tanks in the tank deck and 40 armoured personnel carriers on the vehicle deck. The vehicle deck has been reinforced to enable the transport of two Landing Craft Mechanical-8 (LCM-8) on specially-designed cradles.
In addition, davits on either side of the superstructure secure two Landing Craft Vehicular Personnel (LCVP).
There are facilites for helicopter and landing craft operations and a 70-ton capacity derrick.
The upper deck forward of the bridge and the after deck can serve as helicopter flight decks. Up to two Seaking helicopters can be embarked.
Statistics
Displacement: 5,800 tonnes
Length: 126 metres
Beam: 18 metres
Ships company: 145
Propulsion: two diesel engines
Speed: 16 knots
Weapons: two 40/60 Bofor guns; two .50 calibre machine guns
Landing craft: two LCVP on davits; two LCM 8s as deck cargo
See also:
HMAS Tobruk - another picture; or return to
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