Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates

Haven't heard anything but from what i can gather one of the the 3 big Amphibs are at short notice for this kind of mission. The Canberra has actually already done 1 such trip, to Fiji in 2015.
Australia is always happy to do these HADR Missions using whatever assets are best suited for the job.

I would presume that the CoA is waiting for a request for assistance from the Indonesian Govt. I note that the NZ PM iterated as much on Sunday.

My understanding is that Indonesia hasn't asked for international assistance at this time, or if it has it has done so basically this morning. So it is a bit wait and see, unlike the other pacific countries Indonesia does have significant capabilities in this area, its just it takes some time to organise and mobilize them, just as it does with international aid.

“We have learned our lesson from the Aceh tsunami in 2004 that, regarding international help, we have to be selective and only accept aid that we actually need,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a news conference. “We need to select the countries based on their capacity to help us.”
Indonesia open to overseas aid after earthquakes, tsunami

Australia would be quite keen to assist, so in the next week or so I wouldn't be surprised if the C17's and an amphibious ship are both mobilised.

The LHD I think would be ideal, as it can bring in heavy machinery, and fuel, water and people, and not add a burden to the local area. I wouldn't be suprised to see them hang around for an extended role.

The near by airport was apparently badly damaged with an ATC killed and large cracks in the runway.

Its these kind of events that I hope our efforts with the US and China and Indonesia in inter-operation are useful.

StingrayOZ said:

My understanding is that Indonesia hasn't asked for international assistance at this time, or if it has it has done so basically this morning. So it is a bit wait and see, unlike the other pacific countries Indonesia does have significant capabilities in this area, its just it takes some time to organise and mobilize them, just as it does with international aid.

“We have learned our lesson from the Aceh tsunami in 2004 that, regarding international help, we have to be selective and only accept aid that we actually need,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a news conference. “We need to select the countries based on their capacity to help us.”
Indonesia open to overseas aid after earthquakes, tsunami

Australia would be quite keen to assist, so in the next week or so I wouldn't be surprised if the C17's and an amphibious ship are both mobilised.

The LHD I think would be ideal, as it can bring in heavy machinery, and fuel, water and people, and not add a burden to the local area. I wouldn't be suprised to see them hang around for an extended role.

The near by airport was apparently badly damaged with an ATC killed and large cracks in the runway.

Its these kind of events that I hope our efforts with the US and China and Indonesia in inter-operation are useful.

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Some questions for the experanced navy guys.
Once given the word how long to load and depart? One would guess that some pre-loading is taking place. If nothing else its good training.
What is the transit time from Sydney to Indonesia?
The C17s have proven their worth time and again, now as in Fiji the amphibs will show what they can do.
These ships are a great asset to Australia and the region.

Distance from Sydney is something over 3,300 (nautical) miles; so at economical speed (15 knots or thereabouts) passage time is about 9 days, and at 20 knots a bit under 7 days. You'd probably need to stop in Townsville for a day or two to load engineer equipment and embark the necessary troops, and you might need to make a stop in Darwin to finish the load and maybe top off fuel. The selected ship would probably be able to sail within 24 hours or so of being told to, provided she was alongside FBE and wasn't in a significant maintenance period. Critical thing in getting away might be the availability of AVCAT.

spoz said:

Distance from Sydney is something over 3,300 (nautical) miles; so at economical speed (15 knots or thereabouts) passage time is about 9 days, and at 20 knots a bit under 7 days. You'd probably need to stop in Townsville for a day or two to load engineer equipment and embark the necessary troops, and you might need to make a stop in Darwin to finish the load and maybe top off fuel. The selected ship would probably be able to sail within 24 hours or so of being told to, provided she was alongside FBE and wasn't in a significant maintenance period. Critical thing in getting away might be the availability of AVCAT.

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Thanks for quick, helpful answer.

APDR October is out.

Not much hard stuff in it. They tried getting info about 1180 and go no where despite first steel apparently already cut and it will actually start going together in nov. But we had heard about systems and sensors, and its a bit more OTS so I don't think there is much concern, but they are being a bit secretive.

Sea5000 stuff is also a bit light on. But they also highly the concern about the opv to hunter class transition.

Given the frenzy around sea1000, a bit of info would likely be welcomed by the larger community and push the nutters off the front page. There should be good news about the OPV build. People standing around plasma cutters and such. Also the new yard in WA should be well under way as well.

Steel cut for SEA 1180? See below:

Steel cut for first Offshore Patrol Vessel - Defence Connect

Interesting to note that steel was cut at the Civmec facility in WA and not at ASC in SA.

Which I suppose makes sense, even though the first two are to be delivered from the ASC yard in SA and the remaining 10 from WA, it's probably a good idea that this work is done in WA for the sake of the overall program.

Not that we have seen any 'specifics' as to where the components for the OPVs will come from, but possibly it is a case of 'block' creation in WA and more assembly in SA, rather than build completely in SA then move to WA for the remaining ten ships.

Anyway, good to see the project has actually started cutting steel, but it will be interesting to see how exactly, and where, the components will be created for the first two OPVs.

Cheers,

Understand that all steel is to be cut by Civmec as they have the appropriate digital cutting machines but that fabrication of the first two will be done in Osborne.

Yeah its starting to filter through about steel being cut see here on Naval Today:
Australian OPV construction kicks off with steel cutting ceremony

spoz said:

Understand that all steel is to be cut by Civmec as they have the appropriate digital cutting machines but that fabrication of the first two will be done in Osborne.

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Yes - sounds like a pretty strange setup really..
The steel cutting for the first of overall 12 vessels took place at Civmec’s Western Australia facility.

Civmec will be responsible for building 10 out of 12 vessels under a contract signed with main contractor Luerssen Australia from April 2018.

Australian steel is being used for all 12 OPVs and after being prepared and processed in Western Australia it will be delivered to South Australia. Two ships are being built at Osborne in SA by ASC Shipbuilding before construction for the other ten moves to Civmec in WA in 2020.
Australian OPV construction kicks off with steel cutting ceremony

BTW, looking at the CGI rendering of the OPV


the depicted CGI image is suggesting that the OPVs will be armed with the new Leonardo Forty Light 40mm cannon, not the BAE Bofors 40 mk4.

Milne Bay said:

Yes - sounds like a pretty strange setup really..
The steel cutting for the first of overall 12 vessels took place at Civmec’s Western Australia facility.

Civmec will be responsible for building 10 out of 12 vessels under a contract signed with main contractor Luerssen Australia from April 2018.

Australian steel is being used for all 12 OPVs and after being prepared and processed in Western Australia it will be delivered to South Australia. Two ships are being built at Osborne in SA by ASC Shipbuilding before construction for the other ten moves to Civmec in WA in 2020.
Australian OPV construction kicks off with steel cutting ceremony

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Not really. As the majority of the vessels are to be built in WA it makes sense to set up the plate cutting there. The new automated plate cutting facilites for the Hunter Class are still being built. The Hobart class DDG was built using blocks shipped in from other yards (noting some were built by the current common user facilites operated by ASC). Transporting and consolidating cut plate is is not disimilar to shipping blocks. It will be interesting to see if the steel work is shipped as cut plate or small sections of the ships.

I saw this on Facebook just now (HMAS Hobart 3 page). A nice shot of HMAS Hobart and our US friends USS John Finn sailing together in the eastern Pacific.

alexsa said:

Not really. As the majority of the vessels are to be built in WA it makes sense to set up the plate cutting there. The new automated plate cutting facilites for the Hunter Class are still being built. The Hobart class DDG was built using blocks shipped in from other yards (noting some were built by the current common user facilites operated by ASC). Transporting and consolidating cut plate is is not disimilar to shipping blocks. It will be interesting to see if the steel work is shipped as cut plate or small sections of the ships.

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Yes it does make sense to do all of the steel plate cutting in the Civmec facility.

And I'll also be interested too to see if Civmec is just providing cut plate only to ASC, or going beyond that too. Anyway, good to see production has started.

One more thing, it was interesting to note that (apart from 'cutting steel' for the OPVs), the 'erection of steel' for Civmec's very large assembly hall was started yesterday too, with completion set for late 2019 (just in time to start on assembly of the OPV's).

https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/Civmec-erects-first-steel-at-Henderson

Also, a good video/animation of the new facility too:


With the expansion and upgrades to both the facilities in SA and WA for major and minor warships, hopefully future Governments (of whatever flavour), follow the Continuous Naval Shipbuilding plan well into the many decades ahead.

Fingers crossed!!

Well there you go, apparently everything happened yesterday with 1180. Steel cut for the ship and the steel errected for the yard.

Is there much different in capability between the BAE 40mm and the OTO 40mm? (also I think that image was supplied by lurrsen so may not be accurate with regards to weaponry).

Also I noticed that ASC is now part of BAE.
"Defence will execute the head contract with ASC Shipbuilding – as a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems – for the delivery of the Navy’s nine Hunter Class frigates and associated support system components."
Future Frigate contract announced - Defence Connect

Does that mean that BAE are also effectively building the subs? Or is ASC sea5000 BAE and ASC sea1000 something else?

StingrayOZ said:

Does that mean that BAE are also effectively building the subs? Or is ASC sea5000 BAE and ASC sea1000 something else?

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Short answer, no.

ASC (as it was), has been split into three separate entities:

* ASC Shipbuilding - Will be controlled by BAE during the Hunter class FFG program, and at the conclusion of the project handed back to the Commonwealth (but apparently still able to bid on other work separately outside of the Hunter program itself).

* ASC Submarine Sustainment - Currently operating sustainment facilities in SA and WA for the Collins class.

* Australian Naval Infrastructure Pty Ltd - Responsible for all the new building halls, etc, see below for example:


The question that still needs to be answered (unless someone else know more), is what happens to ASC Submarine Sustainment when the Collins replacement program starts, will sustainment for Collins stay in SA at the current facility, or will sustainment be moved completely to WA?

Will the new build hall be a 'rebuild' and enlargement of the existing facility, or a completely new facility somewhere on the Osborne site?


And:

Naval Group and KBR to design sub construction yard - Australian Defence Magazine

Regardless of new or rebuilt facilities, ASC Submarine Sustainment will have to continue to exist for many years ahead for sustainment of the existing fleet whilst Naval Group starts building the replacements.

Will Naval Group take control of ASC Submarine Sustainment (as BAE is doing during the Hunter program), or will they operate totally separate, who knows??

Cheers,

PS, one last thing, originally the common user facility at Osborne was owned by the SA Government, ownership of the common user facility is in Commonwealth hands.

John Newman said:

Fingers crossed!!

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That's an interesting MEKO 200 3D model they've used. It looks like the Turkish MEKO 200 TN, but with harpoons on the front and a phalanx on the back.

And the other ship shown is a Spanish F100, not even an Australian DDG

spoz said:

And the other ship shown is a Spanish F100, not even an Australian DDG

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Its great to see that they are pursuing sustainment work in both Spain and Turkey. The WA mafia are really out doing themselves now, moving on from killing local construction to now wanting to win refits from the other side of the world.