The capabilities of Qatar’s Navy took a leap forward when Italian shipmaker Fincantieri delivered the country’s first multi-mission landing platform dock (LPD) last week, an outright unique warship that combines features of a surface combatant and an amphibious assault ship.
Al Fulk, has a very ‘interesting’ appearance, featuring a deck gun on its bow, vertical launch system (VLS) arrays tacked onto its side, and an unusually proportioned flight deck. Looks aside, it’s a fascinating vessel that packs a lot of capability into a relatively efficient package.
The ship is the culmination of a multi-billion dollar deal inked nearly a decade ago, and offers the latest signal of the country’s burgeoning military might as it seeks to strengthen itself in a very tough neighborhood. The 468-foot-long, 71-foot-wide ship’s technology and versatility represent a significant maritime upgrade for the Qatari Emiri Navy (QEN).
Displacing roughly 8,800 tons in a full combat load (nearly the same as a Flight II Arleigh Burke class frigate), Al Fulk can serve as a sea base of sorts, sporting a flight deck that can host light or medium helicopters, including the nation’s NH90 helicopter fleet. The Al Fulk also features a roomy garage with two vehicle ramps and a floodable well deck that will allow the ship to deploy landing craft that can ferry armored vehicles, troops, and other materiel ashore.
While one of its primary mission sets will be leading the area air defense mission, which is normally executed by traditional surface combatants, the ship can do a lot of other things, especially roles that are normally carried out by more mission-focused LPDs.
For one, it will give the Navy the ability to cruise far from home. The ship’s two main diesel engines propel the vessel to a maximum speed of 20 knots, and the ship can sail for 7,000 nautical miles at 15 knots, according to Fincantieri. Such range primes the Al Fulk to be able to take on extended deployments inside and far outside of the Gulf. It can also host up to 550 people on board. Fincantieri has not clarified how many personnel are required to crew the ship, but another variant of its class requires just 152 sailors. The larger full complement would include troops and aviation support personnel.
“The LPD is a niche capability that could be the backbone of a multinational operation in the region and significantly augment the capabilities of partner navies,” Andreas Krieg, CEO of the London-based consulting firm MENA Analytica, told Breaking Defense in 2023. “It could function as a hub for greater maritime operations in the Gulf and Indian Ocean.”
Al Fulk was the centerpiece of a nearly $6 billion, seven-ship deal finalized in 2017 that included multiple corvettes and patrol boats. Four Al Zubarah-class corvettes and two Musherib-class offshore patrol vessels had already been delivered to Qatar by the time Al Fulk was handed over in a ceremony at the Muggiano shipyard in Italy on Nov. 29, company officials told TWZ Monday. The ship is based on an enhanced version of Fincantieri’s San Giusto design, one of which, the Kalaat Béni Abbès, is already in use by Algeria.
While neither Doha nor Fincantieri are believed to have publicly stated precisely what is installed aboard Al Fulk, the Algerian variant was delivered in 2014 and features an advanced electronic warfare suite capable of detecting, categorizing and jamming threats that is likely on the Qatari variant as well, TWZ previously reported. Kalaat Béni Abbès also includes the Italian defense company Leonardo’s ATHENA advanced Combat Management System.
It isn’t clear if the same system or an outgrowth of it is also equipping the Qatari variant, but that seems more probable than not. Al Fulk features a Leonardo-built Kronos Power Shield radar. The Kronos AESA radar utilizes an energy-efficient gallium-nitride-based technology to maximize detection capabilities, all within a compact package, according to past TWZ reporting:
“The system can rapidly switch between broad, 360-degree area search and more focused tracking modes. There is also a “fence” functionality able to track short- and medium range ballistic missiles, but only in a very limited envelope. Leonardo says that the complete 430-square foot array offers a typical maximum search range of between approximately 930 and 1,240 miles, though this would be dependent on a host of environmental factors and the nature of the targets in question.”
The two eight-cell Sylver vertical launch system (VLS) arrays that can fire 16 Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles (Aster 15s are also possible) provide the arrows in Al Fulk’s quiver. This package of systems conceivably allows the ship to provide area air defense, including the ability to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, as well as shoot down traditional air breathing anti-ship cruise missiles, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and various aerial drones at significant distances.
In addition to its own capabilities, Al Fulk will serve as a mother ship and command and control asset for the four corvettes, providing long-range targeting information, Enrico Bonetti, then the shipbuilder’s senior vice president for naval vessels said at the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference (DIMDEX) in 2018. The corvettes, with a displacement of 3,250 tons at full combat load, were also slated to have their own Aster 30 missiles and radars, TWZ previously reported.
Bonetti also said at DIMDEX that a 76mm rapid fire main gun would be on the Al Fulk as well as the corvettes, along with Sylena Mk 2 decoy launchers that would, along with smaller automatic cannons for close-in protection, provide additional defensive capabilities. Each corvette was also slated to have a RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher for close-in defense.
And amidst a fleet of smaller corvettes and offshore patrol vessels, Al Fulk is the largest and most advanced warship that that force has fielded to date. It also comes as the country continues on a prolific military acquisition spree, which includes many new and highly-capable fighter jets. Doha has in recent years bought advanced 4th generation fighter jets from three sources, and began adding advanced jet trainers to its fleet in 2022. Go here to read more on how the Qatari Emiri Air Force is growing.
Multiple reasons exist for Qatar betting big on a LPD, according to the non-profit Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Qatar is an exporter of liquified natural gas and needs to secure export routes, and senior officials have spoken of terrorism, regional instability and drug smuggling as other factors for building out the Navy, the institute’s Albert Vidal wrote in August 2023.
The Fincantieri deal that brought Qatar Al Fulk was followed by a $1.1 billion deal with multinational missile company MBDA to build missiles for the new ships, Vidal writes, and that was followed by a $3.7 billion purchase of 28 NH90 helicopters from Leonardo, 12 of which are configured for naval operations.
Qatar is also building out its naval infrastructure and seeking to grow its Navy to 7,000 sailors by 2025, up from less than 3,000 sailors, Reuters reported in 2018.
Qatar’s acquisition of Al Fulk inevitably provides the country with extra military might in a very tense region, while offering the tiny but wealthy nation a way to contribute to multinational combat and foreign humanitarian missions in ways that exceed any of its capabilities in the past.
Contact the author: geoff@twz.com