Fincantieri’s Muggiano shipyard (in La Spezia) held a delivery ceremony for the Algerian Navy’s LPD “Kalaat Beni-Abbes” vessel yesterday, September 4.
The vessel was commissioned in 2011 by the Ministry of Defence of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria from Orizzonte Sistemi Navali.
The BDSL class “Kalaat Beni-Abbes” vessel is a landing platform dock (LPD) ship, developed as a technological enhancement of the Italian “San Giusto” amphibious class vessel and retaining and perfecting some of the latter’s most significant features.
“Kalaat Beni-Abbes” is 143 metres long with a 21.5 metre beam and has a full load displacement of about 8,800 tons. With two diesel engines, it can reach speeds of over 20 knots, and carry more than 430 soldiers, 12 flight service specialists and 152 crew, for a total of about 600 people.
It has a full-length flight deck, with two helicopter landing spots, fore and aft. It is also equipped with a 60-bed hospital and several operating theatres, to provide medical support to both troops and civilians during humanitarian operations.
The order has required Fincantieri not only to build the main vessel, but also to oversee the design and to manage and coordinate the local construction of three smaller vessels, built at naval shipyards in Algeria. These support vessels, known as chaland, are able to carry 140 men or a heavy tank, with a maximum weight of 30 tons, and are an integral part of the equipment of the “Kalaat Beni-Abbes”.
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