Asia Pacific navies are seeking additional long-range sealift platforms in the form of helicoptercapable amphibious warfare ships, to address more diverse and frequent operations ranging from humanitarian and disaster relief (HADR) interventions to maritime and territorial security.

The IHS Jane’s Defence Equipment & Technology (JDET) database indicates that at least 20 long-range amphibious warfare platforms of various types and classes are presently known to be active in eight Asia-Pacific countries – Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) latest amphibious warfare ship, the 27,000-tonne HMAS Canberra , entered service in November 2014. It is also operating the 16,000-tonne HMAS Choules – formerly the UK Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Bay-class landing ship dock Largs Bay . The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) currently operates three 18,500-tonne Yuzhao (Type 071)- class landing platform docks (LPDs). India has the 17,000-tonne INS Jalashwa , a former US Navy (USN) Austin-class LPD that was refitted and upgraded. The Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) operates five 11,000-tonne Makassar-class LPDs.

…Justin Goldman, an associate research fellow in the Military Studies Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told IHS Jane’s that the ability to deploy and sustain rotary-wing aviation and shore-based assets has proven to be invaluable during past HADR interventions in the region.

“Typhoon Haiyan provides one of the best illustrations [of these capabilities] with the kind of complicated archipelagic geography [in the Philippines],” Goldman noted. “You have affected areas that are simply cut off, and the only way to get to those places is through those helicopter assets.”