Thread: RAN gets a new ship.....

Should fit well with the new LHD,s but your right it needs a permanent hangar, all we need now is the VSTOL f35 to go with the canberra class

I think the plan is this ship will complement the LHD'S, bringing forward extra equipment to sustain the landing force, and any helo. support will be provided bt the LHD. Bob

Am fascinated about listing "London" as the home port. Have never seen that on a naval ship before.

What will it be renamed?

HMAS Botany Bay?
HMAS Woolloomooloo Bay?
HMAS Port Philip Bay?

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Am fascinated about listing "London" as the home port. Have never seen that on a naval ship before.

What will it be renamed?

HMAS Botany Bay?
HMAS Woolloomooloo Bay?
HMAS Port Philip Bay?

RFA (Royal Fleet Auxillary) are classed along the lines of commerical fleet hence the London registration.

Another rushed through decision made primarily for political reasons rather than to fit into the capital equipment acquisition program - just as Manoora and Kanimbla were. These ships were acquired because the then government decided to cut the budget and bought these two rusting ships. In the long run it would have worked out cheaper to have built the original ships which would have still been in service and still relatively new.

There will be major issues integrating this orphan into the navy systems - generally ships acquired through this type of acquisition process are not as successful as hoped and have a much shorter life in RAN service than would have been expected.

However, having said that I hope this ship will be a success and the extra Millions of $$$$ that will have to be spent to integrate it into our systems.

Garry

Garry

As you would certainly know, they have to do something real fast as the USS Fairfax County HMAS Manoora is currently being de-commissioned, which leaves only the USS Saginaw HMAS Kanimbla available as a landing platform.

Getting something that is only a couple of years old has to be far better than the LST acquisition where the Yankie ships were already over a quarter century old (and it showed). Surely some of the specialist communications equipment being decommissioned off Manoora can be fitted to HMAS Jervis Bay III (or whatever)?

Diana

Originally Posted by garrycol

Another rushed through decision made primarily for political reasons rather than to fit into the capital equipment acquisition program - just as Manoora and Kanimbla were. These ships were acquired because the then government decided to cut the budget and bought these two rusting ships. In the long run it would have worked out cheaper to have built the original ships which would have still been in service and still relatively new.

There will be major issues integrating this orphan into the navy systems - generally ships acquired through this type of acquisition process are not as successful as hoped and have a much shorter life in RAN service than would have been expected.

However, having said that I hope this ship will be a success and the extra Millions of $$$$ that will have to be spent to integrate it into our systems.

Garry

I think you have made a valid point there, but it would have also been cheaper not to spend millions on 2 ships that when bought were already 30 years old, and build new at the time, ( again the vote one the day for ship building work here in Oz on these old ships )

RFA Largs bay i believe is a good buy, its operated successfully both in Arctic and tropical conditions with no problems whats so ever, integration of RAN kit should be straight forward ( in a ideal world ) one thing i was thinking may be a problem, is the voltage and electrical sockets used throughout the ship, there a 2 pin design first used in the 60's and not compatible with RAN equipment.. maybe a few boxes of adaptors.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Another rushed through decision made primarily for political reasons rather than to fit into the capital equipment acquisition program - just as Manoora and Kanimbla were. These ships were acquired because the then government decided to cut the budget and bought these two rusting ships. In the long run it would have worked out cheaper to have built the original ships which would have still been in service and still relatively new.<snip>
Garry

Garry

I'm not sure that is true, if you consider the recent scuttling of HMAS Adelaide II, she only lasted in commission for 28 years and on comparitive calculations the Aussie built alternative to HMAS Manoora would only have about 10 years of their commission life left.

Diana