A COMPARISON OF FRENCH AND US AMPHIBIOUS SHIPS - THE TCD-FOUDRE AND THE LSD-41

Amphibious and littoral operations have become the prime naval focus f or many countries, and have elevated the level of interest in the ship s acid technologies concerned. This paper explores the effects of diff ering national approaches to amphibious warfare by comparing the capab ilities and systems of two amphibious ships, the French TCD (equivalen t to LSD in English) Foudre and the U.S, LSD 41 Whidbey Island class. Both classes of ships have broadly similar roles and capabilities, but differing operational doctrines, military requirements and design sta ndards have led to quite different approaches in ship design. The Fren ch Navy is similar in function and composition to the U.S. Navy, but a bout one-fifth the size. French amphibious assault is carried out by a n Army division, while the U.S. assault force is a branch of the Navy, the Marines. The French amphibious fleet is sized to carry a proporti onally smaller landing force than that of the U.S but the Foudre would be the centerpiece of the French assault group, while the LSD 41 woul d normally operate with big-deck ships like LHDs and LHAs. Current Fre nch assault doctrine calls for conventional landing craft, while the U .S, uses air cushion vehicles. Finally, the ground assault forces diff er in size and composition. These operational differences, as well as other technical ones, have led to outwardly similar but in fact rather different ships. This paper describes the technical differences betwe en the ships in the context of differing operational requirements, and illustrates how these larger factors greatly influence the outcome of the design process.