Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious

HMAS Kanimbla entering Pearl Harbor during RIMPAC 2010
Class overview
Name	Kanimbla class
Builders	National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (original builders) Forgacs Dockyard (conversion)
Operators	Royal Australian Navy
Built	1971 (for US Navy)
In service	1999–2010
In commission	1994–2011
Completed	2
Retired	2
General characteristics
Class and type	Modified Newport-class tank landing ship
Displacement	8,534 tons
Length	159.2 m (522 ft)
Beam	21.2 m (70 ft)
Draught	5.3 m (17 ft)
Propulsion	6 × ALCO V16 diesel engines, 2,750 hp (2,051 kW) each driving two shafts (3 engines per shaft)
Speed	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Range	14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km; 16,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	2 x LCM8 landing craft
Capacity	450 embarked forces, 955 m2 (10,280 sq ft) of usable tank deck and cargo space
Complement	23 naval officers, 2 army officers, 197 sailors, 18 soldiers
Armament	1 × 20 mm Phalanx Mk 15 close–in weapon system, 6 × 12.7 mm Machine guns
Aircraft carried	4 x Blackhawk or 3 x Sea King
Aviation facilities	3 helicopter landing spots (2 aft, 1 forward) Hangar for 4 helicopters Capable of landing and launching Chinook helicopters

The Kanimbla class was a class of amphibious transport ships (designated Landing Platform Amphibious) operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Two ships (originally built as Newport-class tank landing ships for the United States Navy) were purchased by Australia in 1994 and modified. Problems during the handover process and the need to repair previously unidentified defects meant the ships did not enter operational service until the end of the decade.

Since then, the two ships have been deployed to the Solomon Islands in 2000–01, Vanuatu in 2001, and participated in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Australian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Australian deployment to East Timor following the 2006 political crisis, and Operation Quickstep off Fiji.

After a large number of defects were found in both ships during late 2010, the vessels were docked. It was decided that Manoora was beyond economic repair, and she was decommissioned in May 2011. Kanimbla was to be repaired and returned to service, but the estimated cost and time to do this, plus the successful acquisition of the British landing ship dock RFA Largs Bay as an interim capability replacement, prompted the government to decommission Kanimbla in November 2011. Both ships were sold in 2013 and broken up for scrap.