Joint Support Ship

The Zr. Ms. Karel Doorman - logistic support ship of the Dutch Navy

Joint Support Ship ( JSS , German task force support ship ) is a generic term for multifunctional ships of the Navy for the implementation and support of amphibious operations by sea and air loading of equipment and troops as well as their supply with supply material.

A JSS also serves as a floating command center to coordinate the forces involved, for example as a flagship in a multinational Combined Joint Task Force . It can also provide acute assistance in dealing with natural disasters with logistical and sanitary supplies. Other areas of responsibility are maritime surveillance, embargo surveillance and the protection of the international merchant fleet in endangered areas. When differentiating it from similar ship types, there are overlaps - also due to the intended very variable purpose - (see below).

construction

Characteristic of a JSS is a spacious vehicle deck for the quick loading and transport of heavy equipment such as battle tanks , a flight deck for simultaneous take-off and landing of several multipurpose or transport helicopters and the associated hangar deck , adequate loading capacities for the storage of fuel, material and ammunition for the Supplies , sufficient accommodation for troop transfers up to battalion strength , a fully equipped medical station with operating theaters and a command deck specially designed for the management of military operations with the corresponding information and communication electronics.

This alignment makes it possible to combine various tasks with a JSS that originally had to be performed by several ships and thus to act more efficiently and faster overall. In this regard, a JSS combines the capabilities of a supply ship , dock landing ship , helicopter carrier and the tasks of an amphibious assault ship .

The conception of the ship is modular , so that it can be flexibly converted quickly and appropriately according to a wide variety of deployment profiles and thus offers a wide range of operational options.

history

The idea of the Joint Support Ships arose from the development of helicopter carriers to take on additional functions such as the command post (referred to as "command carrier" in the Blue Ridge class ) or logistics, for example in the US Iwo Jima, which was noticeable at an early stage -Class . The equipment and construction of the newer helicopter carriers for amphibious loading with a corrugated deck or with additional loading capacities for supply was adapted more and more to the merging of operational tasks in the following decades and later ship classes, resulting in the Wasp class or the British HMS Ocean (L12) led. At the same time, the operational requirements for pure landing vehicles expanded to include these capabilities, namely taking along several helicopters for fast transport and operational management functions, in addition to the ability to load independently from seaports. Both developments ultimately led to considerations to create a multi-purpose ship that is designed to take over all these functions from the start.

In the mid-1990s, the German Navy planned to put a ship suitable for operational support into service, adapted to the change in the security situation after the end of the Cold War and the associated strategic transformation of the German armed forces .

Until 1990, the focus was primarily on national defense , but the Bundeswehr's range of operations subsequently shifted to participation in international intervention missions in global trouble spots (for example in the Second Gulf War or in Somalia ).

Thus, instead of defending the German coast, which could be ensured through the use of coastal speedboats , frigates such as the Bremen-class or conventional submarines , it was now taken care of with new tasks, such as deployment in international naval associations and mine clearance as well as the supply and support of German troops on missions abroad. Especially during the withdrawal from Somalia , the dependence on maritime logistical support from other participating nations and the lack of own capacities became clear.

This resulted in the requirements of a multi-purpose ship that would be able to take on these tasks. However, in the course of the reform and transformation of the Bundeswehr and the associated disarmament in the nineties and noughties, due to the changed security situation, this project was put on hold, largely due to the considerable costs of such a ship compared to existing German ship types. Nonetheless, the requirement profile still existed and was expressed in upcoming missions, which is why the acquisition of two joint support ships was included again in the objective of “Marine 2025+” as part of the realignment of the Bundeswehr .

The navies of several countries - including the Canadian or the Netherlands and Germany in a joint project - are currently planning the use of one or more JSS in order to be appropriately equipped for the current conditions of global conflict management and the correspondingly changed requirements, for example within the framework of the European Union Rapid Reaction Forces .

Comparison of similar systems

Ships already in use that largely meet the requirements of a Joint Support Ship are those of the Dutch Rotterdam class , the Spanish Galicia class or the San Antonio class of the United States Navy , although here, due to the well deck, more precisely from one amphibious transport dock landing ship ( NATO designation "Landing Platform Dock" - LPD) is spoken, with the intention of the intended use on landing operations independent of ports. Depending on the definition of the respective national navy, there are also overlaps with “ Docklandungsschiff ” (NATO designation “Landing Ship Dock” - LSD), such as the French Foudre class , as well as with helicopter carriers with additional logistical and flagship functions such as the French Mistral class , which is sometimes also referred to as a Joint Support Ship. The Canadian Navy has chosen a design based on the Berlin class as a Joint Support Ship . The German Navy, as the operator of three ships of this class, on the other hand, sees them as a “task force supplier” and explicitly not as “Joint Support Ships”.