Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates

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StevoJH

The Bunker Group
And we still have our live beef export overseas, oh wait that stopped today bugger me there goes the economy.
It only got banned to indonesia, not sure if we export elsewhere as well (I know we send sheep to the middle east).

Hopefully something gets sorted out one way or another, and as soon as possible.
 

aussienscale

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
And we still have our live beef export overseas, oh wait that stopped today bugger me there goes the economy.

I guess we will have to rely on shipbuilding instead.
What do you mean there goes the economy ?? We can use the extra cattle for manual hauling labour, saves wages, fuel costs, maint, etc :) Hell we could even use them in the shipyards to drag loads of steel or move around wagons or something ?
This would surely have to lower overall costs whilst increasing the country's GDP, and making a positive impact on our Defence industry :rolleyes:
 

Kirkzzy

New Member
It only got banned to indonesia, not sure if we export elsewhere as well (I know we send sheep to the middle east).

Hopefully something gets sorted out one way or another, and as soon as possible.
Farmers will most likely be compensated. However the world is currently undergoing a GFC (no not financial crisis.. food crisis) and I don't think it will be too hard to find a replacement country or that long until Indonesia gets its stuff together.
 

ADMk2

Just a bloke
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
What do you mean there goes the economy ?? We can use the extra cattle for manual hauling labour, saves wages, fuel costs, maint, etc :) Hell we could even use them in the shipyards to drag loads of steel or move around wagons or something ?
This would surely have to lower overall costs whilst increasing the country's GDP, and making a positive impact on our Defence industry :rolleyes:
I just bought a new deep freezer in anticipation of cryo-vac'd steak dropping significantly in price...

Anyone up for a barbie? :D

PS - Please return to naval news now...
 

spoz

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
I just bought a new deep freezer in anticipation of cryo-vac'd steak dropping significantly in price...

Anyone up for a barbie? :D

PS - Please return to naval news now...
Any chance of somebody discussing something to do with the RAN? Mind you, nobody should let the thread title get in the way.....
 

aussienscale

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
can someone tell me if anyone in the RAN wants to put fixed wing aircraft on the LHDs?
If you have a read of this thread - http://www.defencetalk.com/forums/navy-maritime/sea-trials-lhd-jci-9587/
There is lots of discussion on this very subject, also looking back through the RAN thread also lots of discussion on why it will not happen you might have to go back a hundred pages or so at least, also try using the site search function. The only possibility of seeing fixed wing (apart from our future UAV's) would be cross decking from the US, UK or other allies

Cheers
 

Kirkzzy

New Member
heres some news

Not a single submarine seaworthy

Breakdowns sink our defences

they're both from The Australian so im not sure of their truthfulness, i would be interested to know if it was actualy true that no Collins are seaworthy at the moment.
...I clicked the links and then saw you said The Australian :(
Its not that they are reporting bad news that buggers me.. its that they make it seem like the sky is falling and then blame people who are not involved at all. I will then go to their comments section and just see everyone accusing the government of being the problem. Although to be fair in recent days I have seen some very, very well done balanced articles and am very impressed. It seems they have even let people from both sides of politics the ability to comment on these articles in particular, instead of just the one.

A lot of the time it is plain ignorance in fact they had an article at the start of the year (I saw it in this thread) where they said only 1/3 of the fleet was operational... but the thing is, this is to be expected.. its not like we have our entire fleet all out at once.
 

StevoJH

The Bunker Group
You can't tell me that those boats wouldnt be at sea tomorrow morning if they had to for whatever reason.

Better to fix a problem while its small rather then waiting until its a major issue.
 

PeterX

New Member
Exactly fix the small problems so that when there actually is a crisis, the sub doesnt break down in the middle of it because there was an insistence that a sub had to be out. And while I don't doubt its partially true the media can't resist stretching the truth.
 

StoresBasher

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
You can't tell me that those boats wouldnt be at sea tomorrow morning if they had to for whatever reason.

Better to fix a problem while its small rather then waiting until its a major issue.
Three ships are in refit at FBE, not sure about the west and up north with the MWV.
 

Todjaeger

Potstirrer
heres some news

Not a single submarine seaworthy

Breakdowns sink our defences

they're both from The Australian so im not sure of their truthfulness, i would be interested to know if it was actualy true that no Collins are seaworthy at the moment.
Two things of note struck me when reading the article. The first is the following:

Not having a single task-ready submarine is an embarrassment for the navy, whose attempts to improve the performance of the $10 billion fleet have been stymied by breakdowns, accidents and the growing unreliability of the ageing vessels.
Please note the bolded text. While the lead ship, HMAS Collins was laid down about twenty years ago, and the newest vessel HMAS Rankin was laid down about 15 years ago, Collins has only been in commission about 15 years, and Rankin about eight years. While I do not consider the vessels to be 'new' vessels, IMO it is a bit of a stretch to call them "ageing" when the lead ship is approaching the midpoint of her service life. Yes, the subs need maintenance, and yes, the subs will need to start undergoing some sort of MLU. That is normal for a naval vessel with an expected service life of ~30 years. More worrisome IMO is the possibility of some manufacturing or design defect that makes the Collins less effective or available for RAN service. That is the sort of thing which if it does occur, is not the fault of Defence or the RAN, but that does not seem to occur to the writers of the article.

The next item is also below, again note the portion in Bold:

HMAS Collins is undergoing scheduled maintenance at Henderson and is due out later this month, while HMAS Sheean and HMAS Rankin are both in long-term maintenance at the Australian Submarine Corporation in Adelaide.
I could be mistaken, and please feel free to correct me if I am, but I had thought that ASC had changed its name from the Australian Submarine Corporation to ASC not long after winning the AWD contract. Part of the reason for the change I had thought was that with ASC building the AWDs, they would be a ship and sub-building concern, and therefore should have 'just' submarine in the corporate name.

The last thing which I found interesting, and while I am not as aware of more subtle areas within Australian politics, it does sound sort of like a political beatup for the defence opposition spokesman to criticise the chiefs about evasiveness regarding sub availability. That strikes me as being the sort of thing which should not be discussed anything other than general terms in any sort of public settings, for national interest/defence reasons.

-Cheers
 

wrs

Banned Member
Two things of note struck me when reading the article. The first is the following:



Please note the bolded text. While the lead ship, HMAS Collins was laid down about twenty years ago, and the newest vessel HMAS Rankin was laid down about 15 years ago, Collins has only been in commission about 15 years, and Rankin about eight years. While I do not consider the vessels to be 'new' vessels, IMO it is a bit of a stretch to call them "ageing" when the lead ship is approaching the midpoint of her service life. Yes, the subs need maintenance, and yes, the subs will need to start undergoing some sort of MLU. That is normal for a naval vessel with an expected service life of ~30 years. More worrisome IMO is the possibility of some manufacturing or design defect that makes the Collins less effective or available for RAN service. That is the sort of thing which if it does occur, is not the fault of Defence or the RAN, but that does not seem to occur to the writers of the article.

The next item is also below, again note the portion in Bold:



I could be mistaken, and please feel free to correct me if I am, but I had thought that ASC had changed its name from the Australian Submarine Corporation to ASC not long after winning the AWD contract. Part of the reason for the change I had thought was that with ASC building the AWDs, they would be a ship and sub-building concern, and therefore should have 'just' submarine in the corporate name.

The last thing which I found interesting, and while I am not as aware of more subtle areas within Australian politics, it does sound sort of like a political beatup for the defence opposition spokesman to criticise the chiefs about evasiveness regarding sub availability. That strikes me as being the sort of thing which should not be discussed anything other than general terms in any sort of public settings, for national interest/defence reasons.

-Cheers
This is exactly what we need in a Democracy.
Highlight the problems, and put those in the spotlight if they are incompetent.
Replace them them with smeone who can do the job.
 

riksavage

Banned Member
I haven't really read over this but.. how can The Australian claim none are seaworthy when...

ADM: Submarine escape and rescue capability exercised

Hmas Waller is pictured here dated 2011.
The article states:

"Defence declined to answer detailed questions from The Australian about submarine availability, saying only that two boats were in deep maintenance, two were in mid-level maintenance and two "are in the water in Western Australia".

What is the desired/expected operational availabilty - 2 in dock/maintenance, 1 in training, 3 available for operational deployment, or are only 2 supposed to be fully operational at all times?

Also is the JFSRS vehicle used under a lease agreement or is it now formally part of the RAN and crewed by Naval personnel? And is it available for other NATO partners in the Southern Hemesphere? Other than Singapore and the USN it must be the only other system active in the region.
 

RubiconNZ

The Wanderer
This is exactly what we need in a Democracy.
Highlight the problems, and put those in the spotlight if they are incompetent.
Replace them them with smeone who can do the job.
Or why we need a dictatorship, find out who is to blame then shoot them, then the next knows she/he/it needs to get it right.
:lol2
 

Anixtu

New Member
You would assume that that if the "aft low level exhausts" are replaced with what the article calls "standard funnels", they would be moved to another location, if they are left in the same location that they would become a hazard for the helicopter landing spot.

The Dutch and Spanish "part" sisters have their funnells on the main superstructure.

So possibly the RFA is having them moved to a similar location, sounds like a pretty major redesign exercise.
Mounts Bay has received the modified exhausts. Ugly. They come up just forward of the flight deck "goalpost" lighting gantry. [The forum software won't let a noob post a link, you'll just have to search for pics.]

Other known modifications from Mounts' refit include the addition of the gantry joining the three foremasts, the provision of hardware thruster controls on the bridge wings to aid berthing operations, and the addition of a starboard side accommodation ladder.

There were some questions earlier about why Teekay had been used to conduct the survey. In RFA service Largs Bay was run more like a merchant ship than a warship: merchant manning (crew of 69, not the widely quoted 60), built and classed to merchant construction rules, certified as a merchant ship. Teekay (and the Lloyds surveyors that accompanied them) understand merchant ship regulations, certification, equipment, etc. in a way that a RAN survey team might not. One of the acquisition options was a lease, in which case one of the condition may have been to maintain the civilian/merchant certification.
 
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