Humanitarian aid
The amphibious capacity of these vessels allows them to be very useful in crisis situations for deploying humanitarian aid, as was proven in 2010 when the ship Castilla was collaborating in the Haiti earthquake disaster, as well as in operations to combat acts of piracy in the Indian and Somali waters in the year 2012.
The Spanish amphibious ships participated in the “Atalanta Operation ” (August 2012 – December 2012) to fight against piracy along the coast of Somalia, protect the WFP (World Food Program) and AMISOM (African Mission in Somalia ) ships and guarantee maritime traffic navigation safety through the waters of the Indian Ocean and in particular to the Spanish fishing boats sailing in the area. Ships built for Australia have also participated in humanitarian aid actions, such as Haiti.
In addition, these vessels can operate in any type of catastrophe as a coordination center, since they have the capacity to house civilians (up to 1,000 people), have a reverse osmosis water purification plant with which extracted seawater can be supplied to a total of 5,000 people; they also have a power plant enough to power small urban areas. The vessel can transport and unload up to 170 vehicles and 50 containers in ports without a complete infrastructure.
