Is there any advantage for the RAN to disperse the basing of their larger vessels to other deep water harbours away from East Base West e.g. Port Kembla ,H.M.A.S Port Coonawarra Darwin which is the closest deepwater port to Asia. It seems that the East Base is based on a heritage factor from the time of ships of sail any thought?
Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0
- Thread starter OPSSG
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Todjaeger
Potstirrer
It might be worth approaching your question from another angle. What would be (or what are) some of the issues with having vessels homeported at other RAN facilities aside from FBE?
One issue that I seem to recall cropping up repeatedly are retention issues caused by personnel getting posted to bases in areas with less opportunities available for partners/families, and/or the facilities being a very long way away from family. It has been my understanding that the desire to establish a RAN sub facility somewhere on the East Coast is related to issues the RAN had with attracting and retaining submariners with all RAN sub ops being homeported at FBW.
Strange that affects the RAN but not the rest of ADF…
/sarcasm off.
It obviously does, RAN just seems exempt from the push to house all ADF units in the North.
iambuzzard
Well-Known Member
It's a long way for a potential enemy to get at the main fleet units at Fleet Base East or West. Up north they're close to Dodge. Down south we'd usually get some sort of warning to a missile attack and hopefully get defenses in place.