Hermes Class
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| Hermes Class Hermes Class LPD
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Hermes Class Landing Platform Dock |
| Builders: | Arthuristan Dynamics |
| Operators: | Arthuristan People's Navy |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | LPD |
| Displacement: | 24,000 tonnes |
| Length: | 208m |
| Beam: | 32m |
| Draught: | 7m |
| Installed power: |
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| Speed: | In excess of 24kn |
| Range: | Theoretically unlimited |
| Boats & landing craft carried: | 2 x LCAC of 1 x LCU, 14 x AAVs or EFVs |
| Troops: | 700 troops |
| Complement: | 28 officers, 320 crew |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Armament: |
list error: <br /> list (help) 24 x Arthuristan Dynamics V90 VLS cells 2 x Goalkeeper CIWS 6 x 12.7mm Browning HMGs |
| Armour: | steel shrapnel sheets, kevlar spall liners |
| Aircraft carried: | 4 x heavy or 6 x medium helicopters |
The first examples of the Hermes Class were commissioned in the early-2000s, as the long-overdue replacement for the 60s-era Fearless-class landing platform dock. The Hermes is a substantially larger design, capable of deploying a battalion-sized battlegroup of Arthuristan People's Marines, sending them ashore in an over-the-horizon assault in landing crafts, amphibious fighting vehicles and heavy-lift helicopters.
As a cost-reduction measure, the Hermes was designed from the outset to be easily built by civilian shipyards. Nevertheless, survivability was a paramount consideration throughout the design process and it retains many of the vital damage-control measures standard among warships, including automatic fire-fighting foam sprays watertight doors, self-sealing compartments and floodable magazines. Similar to most current-generation of Arthuristan warships, extensive efforts were made into decreasing the vessel's radar-signature. The Hermes also has a relatively heavy complement of defensive armaments, usually being equipped with 24 V90 VLS cells armed with quad-packed AD-16 Sea Adder anti-air missiles, which can be increased to 48 if necessary. The ship also has a pair of Goalkeeper CIWS for additional anti-missile protection, with a secondary role in countering small-crafts and "suicide boats" in irregular littoral fighting which an amphibious warfare ship is likely to be involved in.
