Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship AOPS

[TangoTwoBravo]

I noticed an AOPS was participating in a RIMPAC. Can you fill me in, if this is most likely a coastal domestic defence ship, what role would it play in a large mixed fleet RIMPAC scenario?

Just to add to Stoker’s response, RIMPAC has a HADR (Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief) portion for which an AOPS would be a good fit.

The AOPS was part of that portion this year.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Honestly I would have preferred a bigger gun if anything to silence the incessant whining from those who think the size of a gun is the ships worth.

I am a big fan of the AOP's and all it's capabilities, but I will continue to incessantly whine about the choice made in armament. I know that it is completely unreasonable that the public thinks that a navy ship should be armed.

 

[Fabius]

HMCS Max Bernays departed CFB Esquimalt on June 18, 2024 on their way to participate in RIMPAC 2024. She will support a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission with two special embarked medical teams for an advanced resuscitation and surgical capability.

Are the ships outfitted with surgical equipment and wards etc. and they just carry personnel as needed or did the Medical team need to bring all the equipment and set up in a flex bay type space?
If the ships can offer forward surgical trauma care for 6-10 pers that’s actually fairly useful as a R2 enhanced joint capability.

 

[Stoker]

Are the ships outfitted with surgical equipment and wards etc. and they just carry personnel as needed or did the Medical team need to bring all the equipment and set up in a flex bay type space?
If the ships can offer forward surgical trauma care for 6-10 pers that’s actually fairly useful as a R2 enhanced joint capability.

 

[lenaitch]

With a lot of work, workarounds, risk assessments, briefings etc they also finally got a temporary air cert to do some very basic cross deck helo work.

Still a lot of fixes left before will ever get full air cert for unrestricted flight deck, let alone embarked helo but at least it's a start.

Optimistic LL there will also make JSS easier, but some of the FD related design choices there are somewhat odd, so will see.

For the uninitiated - such as I - what is the problem with the flight ops capability of the AOPS? One would think with a new build, certification would be baked into the design. Did modification change things? Were public statements overly optimistic? Did government bean counters make changes?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

For the uninitiated - such as I - what is the problem with the flight ops capability of the AOPS? One would think with a new build, certification would be baked into the design. Did modification change things? Were public statements overly optimistic? Did government bean counters make changes?

There is theory, when you design and build something.

Then there is the real world, where you put a live helicopter over and on the deck to certify that all the things the designers modelled are true. This is called “Ship Helo Operational Limitation” (or SHOL) Trials. It is a required step in the Airworthiness Process for the ship/class to receive it’s air certification.

And then there will be the dozens/hundreds of processes to be written and amended into SHOPs/SSOs FMAOIs and the SMM for how actually do everything from traversing the helo in/out of the hangar to lashing it down to reacting to a crash on deck.

 

[lenaitch]

There is theory, when you design and build something.

Then there is the real world, where you put a live helicopter over and on the deck to certify that all the things the designers modelled are true. This is called “Ship Helo Operational Limitation” (or SHOL) Trials. It is a required step in the Airworthiness Process for the ship/class to receive it’s air certification.

And then there will be the dozens/hundreds of processes to be written and amended into SHOPs/SSOs FMAOIs and the SMM for how actually do everything from traversing the helo in/out of the hangar to lashing it down to reacting to a crash on deck.

Thanks. Did the CPFs or any of our other earlier helo-bearing ships have this issue? I get that the design has to undergo real world trials, but this seems somewhat lengthy and, in the minds of some I have heard, a somewhat uncertain outcome. We're at three years for HDW.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Thanks. Did the CPFs or any of our other earlier helo-bearing ships have this issue? I get that the design has to undergo real world trials, but this seems somewhat lengthy and, in the minds of some I have heard, a somewhat uncertain outcome. We're at three years for HDW.

There are always surprises.

There is only one crew (less than that, actually) at AETE that can do the trials…and we are doing multiple things nearly at once by introducing a new helicopter, two new tanker classes (Asterix and JSS), AOPs and the River Class.