Landing Ship Heavy

The heavy lift ship is the first purpose built major amphibious ship in the Royal Australian Navy providing the Australian Defence Force with a heavy lift capability not available in any other Australian-owned ship.

Essentially the ship is a multi purpose troop and roll-on / roll-off, heavy vehicle carrier. The design includes facilities for bow and stern loading, a drive through capacity and inter-deck transfers via ramps. It is capable of transporting 18 Leopard Main Battle Tanks in the Tank Deck and 40 Armoured Personnel Carriers on the Vehicle Deck. The Vehicle Deck has been reinforced to enable the transportation of two Landing Craft Mechanical-8 (LCM-8) on specially designed cradles. In addition, davits on either side of the superstructure secure two Landing Craft Vehicular Personnel (LCVP).

There are also facilities for helicopter and landing craft operations and a 70-ton capacity derrick. The upper deck forward of the bridge and the after deck can serve as helicopter flight decks. Up to two Sea King helicopters can be embarked.

Ships

Ship	Pennant	Class	Commissioned
HMAS Tobruk	L 50	Landing Ship Heavy	244471823 April 1981