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AOR Replacement & the Joint Support Ship (Merged Threads)

Suggestions for the mods, the "Further adventures of the Asterix" might warrant a thread split now that she is in service?
 
My God is Davie’s media department worth it’s weight in gold! Their productions are almost Hollywood level slick. Beautiful ship...
 
I agree: Very slick. We should hire their PR firm to design CAF recruiting publicity strategy and adverts.  :nod:

Two small things I like: The coffee machine on the bridge - just behind the captain's chair  ;D; and the big, aft located bridge that lets you see over the frigates and with all RAS operations happening in front of you, instead of behind as in the previous AOR's. One quick look and you take all that matters in without having to look forward, then go to each bridge wings and look aft from each as we had to do on the old Protecteur class.
 
I also like that the bridge wings are enclosed and give a view over the side.  The RNA WAVERULER, I toured in Martinique had that feature as well.  Very nice.
 
I wonder if the benefits from the aft bridge location was one of the main reasons why the Navantia bid was passed over in favour of the BERLIN class, for the JSS project. Certainly that style seems to be the preferred design for many new oilers, including the TIDE class and the new NZ AOR.
 
Both those designs were compliant.  I don't think the "view" from the bridge would be good enough reason to pick one bid over another.  It probably came down to cost of accessing/refining the design.
 
Fair enough. From a casual observer POV it just looks like most modern AOR’s are designed bridge aft. I guess what I mean is that if the CANTABRIA and BERLIN were the same $ with similar amounts of work required to meet Canada’s needs, I suspect you’d pick the latter style for the benefits mentioned above.
 
Swampbuggy said:
Fair enough. From a casual observer POV it just looks like most modern AOR’s are designed bridge aft. I guess what I mean is that if the CANTABRIA and BERLIN were the same $ with similar amounts of work required to meet Canada’s needs, I suspect you’d pick the latter style for the benefits mentioned above.

I've never stood a watch (or sailed on) and AOR so I don't even know if a view of the refueling deck is even important for those who drive the ship.  You need to see where other ships are in relation to yourself, and observe their approaches and break aways, but actually watch the deckwork doesn't seem like it would be that important for the watchkeeper, as long as good comms are being used to pass info (when lines are across etc...).  But I'm not really the expert to ask about this.
 
I've driven PRO during many RAS's and it would have been very nice to be able to see everything going on in the dump at a glance while you are scanning the horizon for oncoming issues. You can have the greatest communications system in the world but being able to see things with your own eyes will give you an extra dose of comfort.

I'm happy that they went with the house aft and all the working gear forward.
 
As I indicated, it's something I think is nice and that I liked, I didn't say it was essential.

Look at FSTO's post. I never "drove" PRO when I served onboard, but at RAS station, I was 2OOW, FixO or "secondary" Seaguard ( With Captain Guy, we always had a JO on the bridge closed up on a second radar to watch for contacts at long range)

Underway: Many things can go wrong on deck on an AOR even before the refuelling ships are alongside. Remember - we're the mother ship: we have the heavy gear, the high power pumps and all the high tension lines and high power winches. Also, as mother ship, we always took our responsibility for watching out for traffic and calling out the scratch runs, changes of speed or courses for the whole evolution seriously (obviously). Finally, also remember those pressure and suction zones they teach you about for making your approaches on destroyers/frigates? Well, even though the AOR has a lot more weight - and thus inertia - they still work both ways and we get sucked and pushed also, so being able to keep an eye on the helmsman at the right moment is useful, especially with ships on both sides at different stages of their approach.

Anyway, as FSTO alluded to, good comms is one thing and necessary (probably even more so in my days when we didn't have deck cameras with the picture displayed on bridge monitors), but its damn nice to have that extra capability to spot trouble immediately and for yourself when watch keeping on the bridge.

 
 
Oldgateboatdriver said:
Anyway, as FSTO alluded to, good comms is one thing and necessary (probably even more so in my days when we didn't have deck cameras with the picture displayed on bridge monitors), but its damn nice to have that extra capability to spot trouble immediately and for yourself when watch keeping on the bridge.

In sense, like the warning your vehicle side and rear view mirror: "Objects are closer than they appear". 



*mod edit to fix quote link
 
Interesting side note, we just had a new volunteer show up at our Navy League Cadet hall last night, he is a CPO that is going to be attached to Vancouver Shipyards to oversee planning and work on the new supply ships for the next couple of years.
 
serger989 said:
The Karel Doorman is my favourite Joint Support Ship... I wish we had 2-3 of those :P For how Canada would use them, we would never even need to look in the direction of an LHD.

Agreed. It would also be easier to sell the idea to the public compared to an LHD or other honking ship. Doorman would have been very handy on the Somalia, East Timor and Haiti missions. However our faithful old AORs did us proud.
 
A favourite out of how many? Isnt  Karl Doorman the sole and only purpose built  Joint Support Ship.  Others appear to be “multi-role” which is a significant difference.
 
You know what grinds my gears?  The term “Joint Support Ship”.

These are not JSS vessels, they are nothing more than Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels. 

Might as well call our frigates, helicopter carriers..
 
Dolphin_Hunter said:
You know what grinds my gears?  The term “Joint Support Ship”.

These are not JSS vessels, they are nothing more than Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels. 

Might as well call our frigates, helicopter carriers..

You have to use the word "joint" to get anything built these days.
 
Dolphin_Hunter said:
You know what grinds my gears?  The term “Joint Support Ship”.

These are not JSS vessels, they are nothing more than Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels. 

Might as well call our frigates, helicopter carriers..

Well we could follow the Japanese with their Izumo-class helicopter destroyer
 
Do we really want to pay Irving another $290 Million dollars to 'Canadianize' another country's ship design?

 
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