Juan Carlos I (L61)

History of Juan Carlos I (L61)

Juan Carlos I (L61) serves the modern Spanish Navy as an amphibious assault ship/helicopter carrier. The vessel was ordered on 5 September 2003 and built by the shipyard Navanta. The keel was laid in May 2005, and the warship went to sea on September 22, 2009. It officially entered service on September 30, 2010, and its current home port is the Rota Naval Base in Rota, Spain.

With the decommissioning of the 17,000-ton STOVL aircraft carrier "Father Asturias" (detailed elsewhere on this page) in February 2013, the value of the Spanish Navy's Juab Carlos I increased significantly.

When built, Juan Carlos I had a length of 757 feet, a beam of 105 feet, and a draft of 23 feet. The displacement is 26,000 tons.

Propulsion is via a conventional propulsion system (diesel-electric with azimuth thrusters), which allows the vessel to propel itself under ideal conditions at 21 knots and reach 9,000 nautical miles.

As an amphibious assault ship, the ship is required to support amphibious operations by assisting in the transport of infantry, vehicles, ships and helicopters from the ship to shore. Thus, the ship's cargo bay can accommodate up to 913 combat-equipped infantry, 46 main battle tank class (MBT) vehicles, 4 very large landing craft and 25 medium transport helicopters (or 11 SVTOL jets and 12 helicopters) ) Hybrid Wing). The Air Wing consists of 172 personnel, equivalent to the ship's standard combat team of 261.

In wartime conditions, the ship can carry a total of more than 1,200 personnel.

The carrier is equipped with air search radar LANZA-N, surface search radar ARIES and EID ICCS ("Integrated Communication Control System"). The armament on board is purely self-defense and consists of 4 x 20mm Close-In Weapon System (CIWS), 2 x Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile launchers, 1 x Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile magazine and 4 x 12 7mm machine guns.

Juan Carlos I maintains the traditional profile, island configuration on the starboard side of the hull. The bow features a ski jump to aid fixed-wing takeoffs, and six deck points can be used for simultaneous helicopter launch and recovery.

Since speed is the key to amphibious operations, this characteristic has tactical implications.

The Spanish helicopter carrier design also forms the basis for two new Australian Navy Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships - HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide, detailed elsewhere on this website.

Specification

Basic

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Wing