First New Royal Australian Navy Patrol Boat Named

The first of the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet of new high performance patrol boats was officially named at a ceremony held at the Austal shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia today.

The 56 metre all-aluminium monohull was named “Armidale” by Ms Jana Stone, the eldest daughter of Ordinary Seaman Donald Lawson who served on the original HMAS “Armidale”, a Bathurst class corvette, during World War II.

The ceremony was attended by approximately 200 senior figures from the Royal Australian Navy, Defence, government and industry including the Minister for the Environment and Heritage Senator Ian Campbell as representative of the Minister for Defence; the Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie and the Premier of Western Australia, the Hon Geoff Gallop.

The Prime Contractor, Defence Maritime Services, teamed with Austal to win the A$553 million “output specified” contract to provide and support through their service lives a fleet of patrol boats to replace the ageing Fremantle Class, which have patrolled Australia’s maritime zones for nearly the past quarter century. The contract was signed in December 2003. Austal is responsible for the design and construction of the 12 Armidale Class vessels. DMS is managing the overall project requirements, including establishment of a fleet management organisation that will provide integrated maintenance, logistic and crew-training support to the vessels throughout their operational lives.

Austal’s Executive Chairman, John Rothwell, expressed his great satisfaction with progress on the prestigious RAN project.

“The project’s targets have consistently been met or exceeded and the feedback from Defence has been overwhelmingly positive. Our ability to meet what is regarded as an aggressive construction schedule demonstrates that the approaches that make Austal successful in building commercial vessels can also be applied to naval shipbuilding,” Mr Rothwell said.

“Combining endurance, improved seakeeping, advanced onboard systems and long term economy of operation, these vessels are at the leading edge of international patrol boat design and construction.”

Adrian Kloeden, the Chairman of Defence Maritime Services, paid tribute to all involved in the project.

“Credit must go to all the DMS and Austal staff involved, and to the Defence and Navy project personnel. DMS has developed a broad and strong relationship with the RAN over the past several years, and I’m delighted to see the same cooperative spirit is evident here. An excellent working relationship has been established and there is no doubt that this is a major contributor to the outstanding progress our team has made,” he said.

Construction of “Armidale” commenced in May last year and it was launched on January 5. It is on schedule for delivery to the Royal Australian Navy in May at its home port of Darwin where it will be commissioned into service. Construction of the second and third boats in the class has already commenced.

The 12 patrol boats will be delivered at regular intervals over the next two-and-a-half years and the Australian Government has indicated its intention to order a further two vessels. These would operate out of either Dampier or Port Hedland and be specifically tasked with patrolling the waters around offshore oil and gas facilities in the north-west of Western Australia. Based in the ports of Darwin and Cairns, the Armidale Class fleet will operate within Australia’s Marine Jurisdictional Zones and on the high seas in latitudes not exceeding 50 degrees, primarily carrying out surveillance, interception, investigation, apprehension and the escort to port of vessels suspected of illegal fisheries, quarantine, customs or immigration offences.

“Armidale” is a venerable name in the RAN. “Armidale” (I) (1942) was a Bathurst Class Corvette sunk by enemy action on 1 December 1942 during operations to reinforce guerrilla forces operating in Timor and to evacuate Dutch troops and Portuguese civilians.