Austal Reveals RAN Patrol Boat Design

Proposal offers Australia affordable patrol force capability.

Western Australian shipbuilder Austal today released the first images of the design it has submitted for the tender for the Royal Australian Navy’s new Armidale Class patrol boats. The high performance vessels form the nucleus of a modern, capable yet affordable solution to Australia’s maritime patrol requirements.

This solution draws on the complementary strengths and skills of Austal, Australia’s largest shipbuilder, and Defence Maritime Services (DMS), an established provider of logistic and technical support to the RAN with a proven track record and solid corporate backing.

The team’s proposal offers substantial savings compared with current Defence procurement budgets and historical in-service support costs, resulting in significantly lower total life-cycle expenditure.

The successful outcomes of the RAN’s Port Services and Support Craft (PSSC) contract demonstrates DMS’ ability to provide tremendous value in delivering the through-life support required by the patrol boat project. In fact, a review of DMS’ performance by the Department of Finance has established that Navy is obtaining 125% of value for 75% of the cost against the previous internal baseline.

The proposed vessel’s characteristics also result in substantial savings. Recognising that both steel and aluminum have potential benefits in patrol boat construction, Austal produced monohull designs in both materials and compared their relative merits in detail. These studies showed that the two designs have approximately equal build costs, however the aluminium variant uses 21% less fuel. Combined with lower maintenance costs, these fuel savings result in significantly lower through-life expenditure.

Developed over a two-year period and drawing on the vast accumulated experience of Austal and DMS in vessel design, construction, operation and support, the 56 metre patrol boat has been fully optimized for the RAN’s requirements – both operational and budgetary – for long-term performance and reliability.

“Embracing technology that is proven, up-to-date and widely applied, the Austal patrol boat is a thoroughbred naval vessel that is operator friendly, reliable and easy to maintain throughout its life,” said Austal's Military Projects Manager, Mr Kim Gillis.

Recognising that crew fatigue and other morale factors are potentially major inhibitors of operational performance, considerable attention has been given to crew comfort issues.

“Extensive testing has proved the design’s excellent seakeeping qualities and that the aluminium hull is slightly superior to the steel design in this regard,” Mr Gillis said.

The vessel’s Australian-designed and manufactured motion control system also contributes to substantially improved ship operability as well as increasing safety and reducing crew fatigue by eliminating excessive ship motion.

All onboard systems conform to Defence quality requirements and are straightforward to operate and maintain. System reliability and supportability is enhanced through carefully planned system back-ups and by maximum use of readily-available commercial equipment.

With Austal’s extensive modern shipbuilding facilities and large, skilled workforce and DMS’ established presence in all Australian navy ports including the patrol boat bases in Cairns and Darwin, this commercially focused partnership is ready to respond to the start of the project as soon as the contract is awarded.