Australian Navy Retires Replenishment Ship and Frigate

03 Juli 2019

HMAS Newcastle is last Aussie-built FFG (photo : Aus DoD)

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has retired auxiliary oiler replenishment (AOR) ship HMAS Success (II) and Adelaide-class (US Oliver Hazard Perry design) guided-missile frigate HMAS Newcastle .

After 33 years of service, Success (pennant number OR 304) was decommissioned in a ceremony held on 29 June at Sydney's Garden Island, Fleet Base East.

Commissioned in 1986, the 157.2 m-long vessel steamed almost one million n miles, participated in 11 'Rim of the Pacific' exercises, and earned battle honours for service during the 1991 Gulf War and in East Timor in 1999, according to a statement by the Department of Defence (DoD) in Canberra.

Success , along with RAN supply ship HMAS Sirius , are expected to be replaced with a single-class of two double-hulled AOR vessels based on the Spanish Navy's Cantabria-class AORs.

HMAS Success replenishment oiler ship (photo : theherald)

Currently being built by Spanish shipbuilder Navantia, the new 19,500-tonne ships, Supply (II) and Stalwart (III), are scheduled for delivery in 2020 and 2021. The lead ship, Supply , was launched at the Navantia Shipyards in Ferrol, Spain, on 23 November 2018.

A day after decommissioning Success , the RAN retired Newcastle (06) in a ceremony held at the same location in Sydney. The 138.1 m-long frigate, which was commissioned in December 1993 as the last of six ships of the Adelaide class, had returned from its final overseas mission on 12 June.

During its 25 years in service, Newcastle steamed about 815,000 n miles; was deployed on operations to the Middle East six times; earned battle honours for its service in East Timor, the Persian Gulf, and the Middle East; and conducted peacekeeping operations in the Solomon Islands, according to the DoD.

(Jane's)