"Italian Kalaat Beni-Abbes " Topic

"On September 4, 2014 at the Fincantieri Muggiano shipyard (in La Spezia) the Algerian Navy took delivery of the Kalaat Beni-Abbes BDSL (Batiment de Débarquement et de Soutien Logistique) amphibious vessel. The vessel was ordered in 2011 by the Ministry of Defence of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria from Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, a company controlled by Fincantieri in which Selex ES also holds an interest, to serve as the national Navy's new flagship.

The "Kalaat Beni-Abbes" (which belongs to the BDSL class – Bâtiment de Débarquement et de Soutien Logistique) 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. The most important of these is the presence of an internal floodable dock, capable of accommodating a ready-to-go chaland (a 20-metre landing craft); the other two landing craft of the same size can travel attached to the ship's deck, and can be deployed using a system of davits. If necessary, the dock can be emptied to accommodate other types of vehicles.

The contract, of particular importance internationally, also includes the provision of logistical support to the customer during crew training. In fact, the training of Algerian personnel by the Italian Navy, taking place since 2013, is using the facilities of the Fincantieri Training Academy, a project initiated by Fincantieri in conjunction with the Italian Navy with the aim of training the crew of ships in the process of delivery.
Fincantieri Training Academy, which is already serving the United Arab Emirates Navy, is a positive example of cooperation between the armed forces and industry through which Italy's naval excellence is made available to Navies around the world…"

Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

An amphibious assault ship as the national flagship? That's a bit unusual…

Indeed my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

Could the be the first Arab aircraft carrier?

Isn't it the biggest ship in their navy.. thus has to be the Flag ship…
Serious – probably has the space to be good flag ship.. and is likely to be where a flag ship should be rather than off doing other duties…
Wasn't it Fearless that was the flag/command ship of the inshore force at the Falklands (while Conqueror was flag for the covering force)????

Others are using ships of the Amphibious Force as well.
The recent flagship of the Royal Navy is HMS Bulwark which is a LPD like its predecessor the HMS Fearless.

At last I have to say that I wondered a bit about the name in the headline which had a rather unusual sound for a Italian ship…

Regards,
Ben