HMAS Manoora (L-52)
HMAS Manoora during 2006
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | USS Fairfax County (LST-1193) |
| Namesake: | Fairfax County, Virginia |
| Ordered: | 15 July 1966 |
| Builder: | National Steel and Shipbuilding Company |
| Laid down: | 28 March 1970 |
| Launched: | 19 December 1970 |
| Commissioned: | 16 October 1971 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 August 1994 |
| Struck: | 17 August 1994 |
| Fate: | Disposed of through the Security Assistance Program (SAP), 27 September 1994 |
| History | |
 Australia
|
|
| Acquired: | 27 September 1994 |
| Commissioned: | 25 November 1994 |
| Decommissioned: | 27 May 2011 |
| Homeport: | Fleet Base East |
| Motto: | "In War And Peace" |
| Honours and awards: |
|
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 20 May 2013 |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics as Manoora | |
| Class and type: | Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious |
| Displacement: | 8,534 tons |
| Length: | 159.2 m (522 ft) |
| Beam: | 21.2 m (70 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.3 m (17 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 6 × ALCO V16 diesel engines, 2,750 hp each driving two shafts (3 engines per shaft) |
| Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Range: | 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km; 16,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
2 × LCM8 landing craft |
| Capacity: | 450 embarked forces, 955 square metres of usable tank deck space |
| Complement: | 23 naval Officers, 2 army Officers, 197 sailors, 18 soldiers |
| Armament: | 1 × 20 mm Phalanx Mk 15 close–in weapon system, 6 × 12.7 mm Machine guns, 4 × MK36 SRBOC launcher |
| Aircraft carried: | 4 × Blackhawk or 3 × Sea King |
HMAS Manoora (L 52) is a Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious ship operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Originally built for the United States Navy (USN) as the Newport-class tank landing ship USS Fairfax County (LST-1193), the ship was decommissioned in 1994 and sold to the RAN.
Although commissioned into Australian service in that year, the vessel was heavily modified from her original design, and did not begin operations until the end of the decade. During her Australian career, Manoora saw wartime service during the War in Afghanistan, and non-combat service in the Solomon Islands and East Timor. In 2001, the ship was involved in the Tampa affair, a diplomatic incident involving a Norwegian cargo ship and a group of asylum seekers.
In late 2010, Manoora and sister ship Kanimbla were placed in an 'operational pause' after several problems were identified with the ships. In early 2011, it was announced that repairing Manoora was cost-prohibitive, and she was decommissioned on 27 May 2011. The ship was sold for breaking in 2013.
The ship was constructed for the USN as a Newport-class tank landing ship by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company at San Diego in California.
In the early 1990s, the RAN initiated a procurement project to replace HMAS Jervis Bay with a dedicated training and helicopter support ship. Meeting the vague specifications of the project required a purpose-built vessel at an approximate cost of A$500 million. The high cost of the project led to its cancellation by the Minister for Defence in 1993, with the instructions to find a cheaper alternative. At around the same time, the USN began plans to decommission fifteen of their twenty Newport-class tank landing ships, including Fairfax County, and offering them for purchase by various countries.
...
Wikipedia