HMNZS Aotearoa Logistics Support Vessel
HMNZS Aotearoa has twice the displacement of HMNZS Endeavour, which is scheduled for decommissioning next year, and will carry 30 per cent more fuel. South Korean firm Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s biggest shipbuilder, will build Aotearoa. Aotearoa will have the ability to deploy anywhere in the world to support maritime operations and enhance combat force. It has the ability to conduct embarked helicopter operations and will be capable of carrying a significant tonnage of operational supplies. And it will provide an important Antarctic support capability to assist with Southern Ocean monitoring.
The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) announced 10 April 2017 that the name of its newest and biggest ship will be HMNZS Aotearoa. Five members of an RNZN panel, chaired by Deputy Chief of Navy Commodore David Gibbs, considered a range of names, with a shortlist presented to Chief of Navy Rear Admiral John Martin for his final decision. It was a big name for a big ship, Rear Admiral Martin said. “HMNZS Aotearoa will represent us as a nation on the international stage whether conducting operational support, maritime sustainment or providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Aotearoa will be recognisable within the Pacific region and identifiable with all New Zealanders.”
Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand. The most popular and authoritative meaning usually given is “long white cloud”. Although Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand,it seems at first to have been used for the North Island only. Many meanings have been given for the name but with Maori names the true meaning can often be found only in a mythological story or in historical fiction illustrating either how the name was given or something of the ideas which prompted it. Aotearoa is made up of either two or three words, Aotea and roa or Ao tea and roa. Aotea could be the name of one of the canoes of the great migration, the great magellan cloud near the bright star Canopus in summer, a bird or even food; ao is a cloud, dawn, daytime, or world; tea white or clear, perhaps bright, while roa means long or tall.
The additional capital investment to give an enhanced naval tanker the Antarctic support capability will cost $64m, while adding 1600 tonnes to the basic design. Polar class vessels have a higher grade of steel plating to withstand cold temperatures, plus an extra thickness calculated in to allow for corrosion/abrasion against ice. The ship’s framework will have an increased number of hull scantlings, the “ribs” of a vessel, while items subject to ice impact loads, such as the propellers and rudders, will be strengthened.
It’s the “refreshed focus” on Antarctic operations that is one of the exciting parts of the project, according to project director Peter Sullivan and project manager CDR Des Tiller. “This is not the first time [previous] ENDEAVOURs, once or twice, went to Antarctica,” says CDR Tiller. “But ENDEAVOUR ‘3’ didn’t have that capability – it wasn’t ice strengthened.
“Now we have got that back with this refreshed focus. That’s got to be the most exciting thing, from a pure naval perspective – we are getting a purpose-built capable ship.”
ENDEAVOUR is a tanker that was bought as a civilian vessel, then made to fit, says CDR Tiller, but the MSC project takes the requirements of the Navy, and turns it into a ship.
It will be ice-strengthened to Polar Class 6, meaning it can operate in the Ross Sea to resupply Scott Base in the summer (December to March), stocked with low flash point fuel, once an ice breaker has cleared a channel. Included in the approved Antarctic option are “winterisation” features to operate at the Lloyds winterisation level of -25 deg C. This includes heating of side ballast tanks, trace heating on the flight deck, winterised main crane and mooring equipment, and enhanced propulsion systems and manoeuvring.
The ship’s ‘axe’ bow is a design feature that displaces water more efficiently, creating less drag. “We’ve designed it to be more fuel-efficient,” says CDR Tiller. “[The bow] reduces the amount of pressure waves coming off the hull, which is useful when ships come up alongside.”
As well as carrying more than 8,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, the new tanker stores 1,550 tonnes of aviation fuel. “The aviation facilities are much greater here,” says Mr Sullivan. “We are going to be the only ship in the fleet that can operate and maintain an RNZAF NH90 helicopter.”
Sullivan said everything will be modern and up-to-date. “This ship is going to be around for 25 years, and we don’t know what piece of equipment will turn up in 25 years. “But anything we think is likely to happen, we have made provision for.” The tanker will take a core crew of 64, plus 11 flight crew, and have accommodation for 98, says Mr Sullivan. “That’s a bit more than ENDEAVOUR.
Rolls-Royce secured a milestone contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to provide a concept design based on the Rolls-Royce Environship Leadge Bow. This marks the first reference for the award-winning wave-piercing hull form in the naval sector. Rolls-Royce will also equip this new 23,000t Polar-class logistics support vessel, which will replace the New Zealand Defence Force’s 30-year-old tanker HMNZS Endeavour.
The prime contractor HHI will undertake detailed design and build the vessel as part of the NZDF’s Maritime Sustainment Capability (MSC) project, using the Rolls-Royce Environship concept design under licence.
Commenting on the contract, Sam Cameron, Rolls-Royce, Senior Vice President Sales and Business Development – Naval, said: “We see significant value in the Environship concept in the naval sector. Winning this milestone contract is of considerable importance to our naval ship design offering, which is new to Rolls-Royce.
“We have worked with HHI on a number of vessels, but this the first project in which we will collaborate on the conceptual design requirement. We look forward to working with HHI in delivering the MSC Support Ship and providing through-life support to the New Zealand Navy.” The vessel will be based on a modified Environship hull form designed to meet NZDF requirements for a heavily winterised, ice–strengthened vessel capable of carrying out operations in a challenging Antarctic environment.
Aside from the bespoke Environship concept design, the Rolls-Royce scope of supply is extensive and includes a Combined Diesel Electric and Diesel (CODLAD) propulsion plant based on twin Bergen main engines. These will each drive, via reduction gears, a controllable pitch propeller. Rolls-Royce will also supply the propeller shafts.
Electrical power will be supplied by Rolls-Royce in the form of four MTU gensets from Rolls-Royce Power Systems, which will also provide power to the Rolls-Royce supplied switchboards, motors, drives, bow thruster and the electric RAS/FAS system, which allows for simpler and quieter replenishment/fuelling-at-sea operations. Rotary vane steering gear and rudders form part of a stand-alone package.
Ben Dunscombe, Rolls-Royce Programme Executive, Asia, who is responsible for the delivery of the project, said: “We have pooled our resources across Rolls-Royce to bring together a unique array of our equipment to meet the specification. To meet the high winterisation and Polar Code 6 requirements, propellers and the main and auxiliary engines will be slightly larger.”
In an ambitious time frame, Rolls-Royce was scheduled to deliver equipment to the South Korean builder from 2018. The vessel was scheduled for a 2020 delivery.
The new state-of-the-art 26,000 ton Maritime Sustainment and Capability vessel for the Royal New Zealand Navy successfully completed its series of 7 Contractual Sea Trials and was delivered on 8 June 2020. SeaQuest Marine Project Management oversaw the entire 28-month construction which was undertaken by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, South Korea. The HMNZS AOTEAROA departed from South Korea on 10 June 2020. The tanker and replenishment ship is the largest the Royal New Zealand Navy has ever operated.
The primary role of AOTEAROA will be to provide global sustainment to New Zealand and coalition maritime, air and land forces with fuel, ammunition and other equipment supplies.
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