The ''Fearless''-class landing platform docks were the first purpose-built amphibious assault vessels in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. The class comprised two ships: and . Designed as

landing platform dock An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently oper ...

s (LPD), they were designed to transport and land troops by sea either using

Landing Craft Utility A Landing Craft Utility (LCU) is a type of boat used by amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore. They are capable of transporting tracked or wheeled vehicles and troops from amphibious assault ships to beachheads or piers ...

(LCU) or

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. As constructed, the ships have an internal dock that is accessed via the stern—while in port, vehicles can drive up the stern ramp and into the internal vehicle decks. At sea, the ships could partially submerge themselves at the stern, flooding the internal dock and allowing landing craft to come right up to the edge of the vehicle deck. Each ship carried four LCUs in the stern dock, with four smaller landing craft on davits on the superstructure. They provided accommodation for up to 400 troops, which could be increased to 700, if no vehicles were carried.

Service

''Intrepid'' was put into extended reserve in 1991, effectively removing her from active service. While in this state, she was used as a source of spares to maintain ''Fearless''. ''Intrepid'' was finally withdrawn from service in August 1999. ''Fearless'' was kept in service, and continued to be deployed in concert with until the end of 2002, when she too was withdrawn from service, ready for the to enter the fleet. The ''Fearless'' class were the last steam-powered surface vessels in Royal Navy service (nuclear submarines use a steam turbine drive).

Ships

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fearless Class Landing Platform Dock Amphibious warfare vessel classes Ship classes of the Royal Navy