Nafarroa Class

The Nafarroa Class Landing Helicopter Dock are the strategic projection ships of the Eusko Itsas Gudarostea.

Background
In June 2005 IEIA aproved a projet to build 2 Landing Helicopter Platforms to support the aircraft and amphibious capabilities of the Eusko Itsas Gudarostea. The design contract was awarded to Euskalduna Ontziolak SA. In March 2006, IEIA ordered the construction of 1 new ships. Currently three ships are in service.

Design
The Nafarroa Class LHD is a multipurpose vessel that can be used as an aircraft carrier as well as for amphibious and relief operations. The Nafarroa Class has a reinforced hull with light icebreaking capabilities.

Aircraft Carrier Role
As an aircraft carrier, Nafarroa Class has a 216 m-long and 36 m-wide flight deck with a 12° sky-jump facility for VSTOL aircraft as |AV-8B Harrier II. Apart from |AV-8B Harrier II a large variety of helicopters can be operated from the vessel. The hangar can accommodate up to 24 aircraft, while 12 aircraft can be parked on the flight deck. The ship has two elevators, with a capacity to carry bigger aircraft in the future. The vessel's displacement for air operations is 37,678 t and maximum sustained speed is 31kt.

Amphibious Operations Role
The ship has a dock of 74 m length and 20 m width. Her flooding deck can carry up to six LCMs & LCACs and a number of LVTs. Displacement of the LHD for amphibious operations is 39,789 t, while the maximum sustained speed is 29 kt.

The Nafarroa Class ships are capable of transporting 212 containers as well as evacuated civilians. It has two operation theatres, a dentist's room, a sick bay, a consulting room, a first aid room, an ICU, an injury selection area, an X-ray room, a lab and a chemist's room. An elevator connects the dock, flight deck and cargo decks to the hospital to transport invalid personnel.

The Eusko Itsas Gudarostea will deploy the vessel jointly with the Eusko Itsas Infanteria and the Eusko Gudarostea. The Nafarroa Class has a 2,000 m² heavy vehicle garage for 60 Leopard type tanks. The light vehicles garage is next to the aircraft hangar, in an area of up to 3,000 m².

Power generation & propulsion
The power plant of the ship has been completely redesigned to suit the needs and requirements of the EIG and the new systems and elements of the ship. IEIA chose to equip the ship with a clean fuel cell propulsion system developed by the company NAtech.

The power plant of the ship was designed taking into account the current needs of energy for propulsion and other systems on board, so it was possible to assume an increase in power required if new equipment or systems were installed in the future.

For the propulsion of the ship NAtech has developed a solution combining 4 NAtech Statpower System power plants of 22 MW each with 8 NAsoft ST energy servers with 5 MW power each. Aditional 2 NAsoft ST energy servers provide the electricity needed for the ship military and support systems.

The propulsion system is fully electrical with two AZIPOD s (ABB azimut thrusters) mounted externally to the main hull. The electricity for the motors is supplied by the power system.

Electronic systems
One of the main design premises was the need to mount systems capables of full integration with other Armed Forces systems and satellite net.

Sensors
 * 1 x Saab 9LV CMS Combat Management System
 * 1 x Saab 9LV FCS Fire Control System
 * 1 x Saab EOS 500 Electro Optical Fire Control
 * 1 x TERMA SCANTER 6000 Surveillance Radar

Electronic warfare
 * 1 x Kongsberg C-Scope Sonar System


 * 1 x Saab SME-200 Tactical EMS / ELINT
 * 1 x Saab NLWS Naval Laser Warning System

Decoys


 * 1 x TERMA DL-12T decoy launcher
 * 1 x TERMA Loki torpedo countermeasure

Armament
The weapons system of the class are:
 * 2 × 8-cell Ezpata Vertical Launching System
 * 4 &times; 12,7 mm M2 Browning M2HB HMG Sea Protector
 * 2 x Long Range Acoustic Device
 * 2 &times; spare CIWS gun w/ calibre 40 mm

Air wing
In the amphibious role, the ship can carry up to 15 aircrafts that can reach 40 in the aircraft carrier role. The aircrafts suitables to be operated are:
 * Medium and heavy helicopters. Currently Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma, Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma Naval variant, Westland Sea King and AS532 Cougar
 * VSTOL Aircraft as |AV-8B Harrier II

List of ships
The ships are named after Euskadi Lurraldea.