Shipbucket

Was curious what people here thought the best option for a new Hospital Ship would be.

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Supreme Commander of the Astrofleets

It's cheaper with an commercial vessel that can be transformed in to an hospital vessel within 24hours. We do that in Norway with good success. The only cost US navy would have for the hospital ship is when they using it.

but for an big navy USA, they would need some smaller hospital ship that can function as an fast respond vessel. That get the before the hospital ship. Almost like an MASH unit.

Cleansheet and other commercial craft are right out leaving just the AKE, LPD, & MLP/AFSB options.

Of those, the MLP/AFSB is the slowest - and likely too slow for the operations in question, just leaving the AKE and LPD hulls. I'll go into the breakdowns later when I'm not falling asleep.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Sudden Idea... bit weird perhaps, but... perhaps not.

Why not take the aircraft carrier way.

you don't need an nuclear reactor, diesel engine is enough. don't need that high speed of an aircraft carrier, that reduce power plant size.

That is a spectacularly stupid idea. You would be designing an all new ship with none of the advantages of designing an all new ship.
To continue, to my knowledge there have been no studies of converting the AKE hull to a hospital ship. While I do like the AKE hull and program (ahead of schedule and under budget!), I'm not sure it's the best option (although I'm sure NASSCO would love to get a contract to study it!).

What has been studied is a conversion of the oldest of the LSDs - The Whidbey Island Class. I know there were two MIT studies (link and link)on converting the oldest ships into hospital ships with landing docks. While both designs have fewer ORs and beds than an LPD-17 study (link), they are dramatically less expensive (the conversion of 4 LSDs could be done for the cost of a single LPD repeat.

If new build construction is required then I think that an LPD-17 repeat is the least-bad option. While a dedicated hull would be nice being able to tie into an existing logistic train and crew training system would potentially offer lower life cycle costs, something that must be kept in mind in the current austere environment.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Yeah, an LSD conversion seems to be the way to go.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

The last AH was converted from a LNG tanker the Navy got inexpensively.
I believe the next one should not be based on a combat vessel (LPD) or a possible legitimate wartime target (tanker, cargo ship).
I suggest a hospital ship based on a converted liner.

Ok, how does that solve the problem of not being able to get into ports because of draft limits, or limitations in helo ops?

For that matter, what liner are you going to take? There are not that many real liners left (and only three big ones - one of which is in service).

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

the a heavily modified afloat forward staging base was looking good to me. perhaps you can confirm but I hear NASSCO is going to make a hybrid of the T-AKE and the MLP/Alaska class tanker for its T-AO(X) proposal.

_________________
Supreme Commander of the Astrofleets

a modified Ro-Ro design


Ideally with
- 160-200 meters ships
- built in commercial standard
- one or two shafts or more likely pods
- with a 18-22 knots speed
- a flight-deck aft, with hangar for 2 medical helico
- capacity to carry a dozens of medical containers
- 2 doors (one aft, one sided)
- without armaments (except special/security forces onboard)