The 240-meter vessel is designed to provide a floating
helicopter landing base, and provide other support to military operations as an expeditionary sea base. The craft is officially a customizable floating
command-and-control base and functionally a
staging base, with the ability to launch helicopters and small boats, provide living quarters for troops, and command-and-control facilities. She can accommodate a variety of other facilities in
shipping containers, including berthing for special operations troops, laundry facilities, or cold storage. The ship has a large upper flight deck, or mission deck, suitable for a wide range of applications, including the simultaneous accommodation of four helicopters. Though the ship's deck can land and maintain the largest helicopters, it cannot accommodate
F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, despite their short-takeoff and vertical-landing capabilities. Below is an open space for storing equipment and for launching boats; however, there is no
well deck to support the launching and recovery of
hovercraft or larger boats. The flight deck separates forward and aft
deckhouses. The forward deckhouse is home to a crew of 100 Navy personnel, rotated on a five-month cycle. Engineering and navigation are provided by about 40 civilian mariners berthed in the aft deckhouse. ==Deployment and operations==