ENVS El-Zamani

ENVS El-Zamani

El-Zamani
Class overview
Name:	Naheera class
Operators:	Emmiria
Built:	1987–2000
In commission:	2001–present
Planned:	2
Completed:	2
History
Emmiria
Name:	El-Zamani
Namesake:	Kayaad el-Zamani
Operator:	Emmirian Navy
Ordered:	3 February 1986
Builder:	Ayalhani Yards
Laid down:	14 April 1989
Launched:	7 May 1994
Maiden voyage:	18 May 2001
Homeport:	Kuye, Emmiria
Status:	In service
General characteristics
Type:	Aircraft carrier
Displacement:	42,500 tonnes (full load)
Length:	261.5 m (858 ft) overall
Beam:	Overall: 64.36 m (211.2 ft) Waterline: 31.5 m (103 ft)
Propulsion:	2 × K15 pressurised water reactors (PWR), 150 MWt each, low-enriched uranium < 20% 2 × steam turbines with a total 61 MW shaft power 4 × diesel-electric 2 × shafts
Speed:	27 knots (50 km/h)
Range:	Unlimited
Endurance:	45 days of food
Capacity:	800 commandos, 500 tonnes of ammunition
Complement:	Ship's company: 1,350 Air wing: 600
Sensors and processing systems:	DRBJ 11 B tridimensional air search radar Thales SMART-S MK2 (replacing DRBJ 11B)
Armament:	4 × 8 cell A-43 Sylver launchers carrying the Ostiff 15 surface-to-air missile. 8 × 20F2 20 mm cannons
Aircraft carried:	30–40 aircraft, including 30 Kowsir 2 (standard) 4 Z-11 Eagle

The ENVS El-Zamani is the flagship of the Emmirian Navy. The ship, commissioned in 2001, is the tenth Emmirian aircraft carrier and first Emmirian nuclear-powered surface vessel, as well as the first of two Naheera-class. Her sister ship, the ENVS Qayyom, was launched in 2004. She is named after Emmirian statesman and World War general Kayaad el-Zamani. The ship carries a complement of Kowsir-2 and Z-11 Eagle aircraft for combat search and rescue, as well as modern electronics and missiles. She is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses two 75 m C13‑3 steam catapults of a shorter version of the catapult system installed on the Zamastanian Talon-class nuclear aircraft carrier, one catapult at the bow and one across the front of the landing area.

Development

Construction

The hull was laid down in April 1989 at the ENSC Kuye naval shipyard. The carrier was launched in May 1994 and at 42,000 tonnes (full load) was the largest warship launched in Adula since 1950. She was to be named Al-Hammad in 1986 by the Emmirian president at the time, Abu Hasan Bani, after Rida al-Hammad. On 18 May 1997, however, the name of the ship was changed to El-Zamani by the president at the time, Raaid al-Taheri.

Construction quickly fell behind schedule as the project was starved of funding, which was worsened by the lasting effects of the 1982 Oil Depression Crisis. Total costs for the vessel would top ع3 billion. Work on the ship was suspended altogether on four occasions: 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1995. The ship was commissioned on 18 May 2001, five years behind the projected deadline.

Trials and technical problems

ZMS Griffiths (left), the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and El-Zamani (right), at that time the newest nuclear carrier, both steaming in the Albarine Sea in 2001.

El-Zamani entered sea trials in 1999. These identified the need to extend the flight deck to safely operate the Zamastanian Z-11 Eagle. This operation sparked negative publicity, however, as the same tests had been conducted on previous ships. The 5 million rigas for the extension was 0.025% of the total budget for the project. On 28 February 2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident.

The ship left Kuye for her fourteenth and final sea trial on 24 October 2000. During the night of 9–10 November, in the Eastern Cantalle Ocean while en route toward Anchorhead, Alenchon, the port propeller broke, and the ship had to return to Kuye to have a replacement fitted. The investigations that followed showed similar structural faults in the other propeller and in the spare propellers: bubbles in the one-piece copper-aluminium alloy propellers near the center.