LHD Amphibious Hospital Ship

In Norway one of the coastal steamers (Hurtigruten) have been designed to be able to be used as an hospital ship if needed. with a berthing space for 620 passengers, one emergency helipad and able to handle up to 10-20 operation at the same time... for little Norway. Then I can only think that the only advantage one hello carrier as an hospital ships is more as an staging area for people that is getting ready to be transported to an super carrier where they can be flown further back to an airfield.

The only reason I'm building a model of a LHD hospital ship......is for FUN! I've had the idea for a long time and I want to try it out. I hate building model kits straight from the box. I always like to look for new things that nobody has ever done or seen before. Face it: You see the same tank, same aircraft, same ship, etc. at contests and in magazines. Maybe the unit markings, colors, decals, etc. change a bit, but it's still the "same old, same old" regardless. Hence, why I am building a WHIF (What If) concept ship.

I ask again: Why not an LHD as a "pure" non-military hospital/humanitarian relief ship? There are soooooooooo many advantages.
It makes sense to have a well deck and a flight deck because what if one or the other is inoperable for some reason? If the flight deck is fouled up, then you can recieve patients via the well deck. If the well deck is incapable of receiving patients, then you have the flight deck. There are only two ways for hospital ships to take on patients and cargo: By sea and air. And the MERCY class hospital ship does this pretty poorly as explained below:

Quote:

The Mercy-class ships are large, with 1,000 beds, and can receive up to 200 patients a day. They are stable platforms suitable for performing most surgical procedures in various sea conditions. However, the main points of criticism of these ships are:

They are too slow, with a maximum speed of just over 17 knots. They are too large, and are not easily or quickly deployed or docked. Their size gives them a substantial radar signature that, combined with lack of maneuverability, makes them vulnerable to attack (which should not occur under the auspices of International Law). The Mercy class ships are much larger (in terms of medical capacity) than is needed for most military operations. That said, to attack a hospital ship is a war crime under Hague Convention of 1907.

While the ships are underway or in rough seas patients must be transported in by helicopter. However, helicopter capacities are limited, as each ship has only one landing pad.

Patient movement within the ship is limited. Built as oil tankers, the original oil storage bulkheads were retained, but have no hatches, which means that patients must be brought up to the top deck in order to be moved from a lower compartment in one part of the ship to another.

In mid-2004 Vice Admiral Michael L. Cowan, the Surgeon General and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said that the Comfort and Mercy should be retired. "They’re wonderful ships, but they’re dinosaurs. They were designed in the ’70s, built in the ’80s, and frankly, they’re obsolete".

Few, if any, options are presently being explored to replace them with a platform better suited to the mission at this time.

I am out of here. you will do whatever you want, or so it seems at least. I (we) have said our reasons why not at least 2-3 times now. it was interesting to think about, and interesting to discuss, but if you want to build it, just do it, and don't ask for our reasons why we would not do it.

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
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acelanceloet wrote:

Your signature obviously speaks volumes about you. For you must be grumpy and an engineer. Tell you what. I've already got a LHD model kit and am preparing to start on it this Fall. How about you go get whatever amphib model kit you want, and we'll hold a contest to see whose hospital ship is the better one? Or better yet, I'd be willing to write a letter to Ingalls Shipbuilding (Which makes the LHD's) or whatever Navy office was available and ask them what their thoughts were on the feasibility of an amphib hospital ship. Then I'll gladly share those results here.

IceKnight34 wrote:

I'd be willing to write a letter to Ingalls Shipbuilding (Which makes the LHD's) or whatever Navy office was available and ask them what their thoughts were on the feasibility of an amphib hospital ship. Then I'll gladly share those results here.

do that, it would be interesting to read what they think.

you ask for comments, we give them, and you say 'give me better ones'. that is basically why I am out of here. nothing deeper then that.

I am not saying you should not build your kit as hospital ship. go ahead and do that, we have nothing to say about that. but don't ask the same thing over and over again expecting better answers. because in short, an LHD as base for an hospital ship works, but it will not be ideal, and there are better options. that is what I at least have to say about it

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

IceKnight34 wrote:

I ask again: Why not an LHD as a "pure" non-military hospital/humanitarian relief ship? There are soooooooooo many advantages.
It makes sense to have a well deck and a flight deck because what if one or the other is inoperable for some reason? If the flight deck is fouled up, then you can recieve patients via the well deck. If the well deck is incapable of receiving patients, then you have the flight deck. There are only two ways for hospital ships to take on patients and cargo.

This is why all aircraft have two sets of landing gear, so they can use one when the other fails, right? Are you sure you shouldn't have a bow door and beaching hull too so it can beach and take on casualties directly in case the fight deck AND well deck goes out? What you are falling prey to is a classic case of gold plating, assuming scenarios with nill chance of happening require a novel and expensive solution just in case. Has the comfort ever had to suspend operations due to its flight deck fould long term by a meteor strike or other unlikely scenario as far as you know?

I am glad you quoted that wiki info on their weeknesses. The ONLY one listed that using an LHD allieviates "better" (ie more, not what is needed) than an LPD is the lack of aviation facilities. Your problem is that you have gone from the one amidships helipad with no hanger on the Mercy to the eight super heavy CH-53 handling helipods on a bow to stern flat top with room for 42 CH-46s on the Wasp. Do you honsestly think when reading that explaination of the weeknesses you quoted was advocating a battalion lift capacity?

Besides that there is the size. The Wasp has a complement of 1500 crew (the entire complement of the comfort in combat conditions) plus 1800 marines. Granted wouned probably take up more room than a healthy marine but what I am getting at is that your LHD will have more capacity than the current Mercy when the Mercy is already considered overkill. This is BEFORE you convert any of the vehicle storage decks to living spaces.

I would still like to see the ship though, so have at it!

Somehow related, Indonesia converted one of their LPD's to a hospital ship, so a LHD conversion is not so far-fetched.
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Sounds like what you need is something like this...

Forgive the crappy 2 minute photoshop job. but couldnt you concievably convert the enormous mission area into hospital beds and there is plenty of flight deck space for conex boxes, standard containers with mission specific medical modules (i.e. dentist, cbr, etc)

I think the ship around those beds would he horrendously expensive for the hospital beds gained. I can put many times more hospital beds in an impressed 30 year old cruise ship for less money than the 15 odd you might get in that LCS.

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