HMS OCEAN is the Royal Navy's 203m Amphibious Helicopter Carrier designed to carry an Embarked Military Force (EMF) of 12 medium support helicopters, 6 attack helicopters and 4 Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) Mk 5 Landing Craft.

Houlder was tasked with assessing the feasibility of improving the deployment of HMS OCEAN’s Stern Ramp Support Pontoon.  The pontoon is a 24t aluminium construction in three sections each over 5m in length. The requirement was to overcome significant difficulties associated manoeuvring the pontoon's three separate sections by crane and then assembling them on the flight deck with sufficient accuracy.  Deployment in this way was considered to take too long and a low level of tolerance on connection pins and holes had led to damage.

Houlder’s feasibility study explored several improvement options before recommending modifying the existing pontoon to add hinges to the connecting plates. A hinged pontoon could be stored and manoeuvred in one folded piece before being “folded out” on the flight deck for deployment.

On agreement with the client and Ship Staff, Houlder engineers undertook the necessary structural design and supervised the fabrication, testing and commissioning required to ensure success. The improved pontoon was installed in February 2010. Its operation is illustrated below.