Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates

[Trackmaster]

What sort of inquiry/investigation is underway to determine what happened on the Choules?
And in a situation like this, are the folks on the bridge at the time, including those in senior positions, stood aside or do they continue in their positions?
And as part of the inquiry/investigation, would advice from the previous operators of the ship be allowed as evidence?

 

[gf0012-aust]

What sort of inquiry/investigation is underway to determine what happened on the Choules?
And in a situation like this, are the folks on the bridge at the time, including those in senior positions, stood aside or do they continue in their positions?
And as part of the inquiry/investigation, would advice from the previous operators of the ship be allowed as evidence?

Well, the Minister was the one who selected the company that did the vessel assessment - and it wasn't a company who did this kind of work as "trade"

there are others who can vent on the minutiae.

Other maritime agencies were surprised at the choice. Navy have no say in the matter apart from their own technical teams.

 

[OpinionNoted]

View attachment 5581Port Phillip Bay Heads Web Cam,if you want to see blue marlin make her way into the bay in next few minutes...camera 2 and 3,updated every minute.

11.05 am she makes her apperance.

 

[SouthernSky]

It was an impressive sight watching the both of them come through Port Phillip Heads. I have photos, but unfortunately not enough posts yet to put them up. Plenty of news choppers flying around, so bound to be a bit on tv.

 

[ADMk2]

It was an impressive sight watching the both of them come through Port Phillip Heads. I have photos, but unfortunately not enough posts yet to put them up. Plenty of news choppers flying around, so bound to be a bit on tv.

It made the Channel 9 morning news...

 

[rand0m]

Oh no... it has begun, we can expect much more of this...

The vessel ship lovers have been waiting for has arrived in Port Philip Bay.

The world's largest lifting ship Blue Marlin passes through the heads at Pr Lonsdale shortly after 11am.

The Geelong Advertiser went on board the South Bay Eco tours boat to get up close with the vessel, which was carrying the ship that- after works in Geelong- will become the HMAS Canberra aircraft carrier.

A group of men from the World Ship Society were also on board the Eco boat, which was a speck on the horizon in comparison to the orange giant.

Excited society members said it was amazing to see the ship so close.

 

[t68]

It’s quite amazing that every time a politician opens their mouth on the new LHD, it’s about humanitarian role of the ship as if it’s not a warship of RAN, it’s like they want to paint her white with a big red cross on the side. If they wanted a hospital ship they could have got one a dame sight cheaper.

Hull of huge Navy ship arrives in Port Phillip Bay - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

'Super ship' to boost Melbourne - Yahoo!7 News

 

[StoresBasher]

Pretty sad SB, as much as you can comment, what is the current time frame for Choules to be fixed ? I am still very surprised that there has been very little press on this one, would have thought they would jump on it hard ?

Cheers

I'm not on Choules anymore, however I remain close to my old ship mates and lets just say, they are not going anywhere for a while.
I'm on another ship with more defects than you can poke a stick at!

What sort of inquiry/investigation is underway to determine what happened on the Choules?
And in a situation like this, are the folks on the bridge at the time, including those in senior positions, stood aside or do they continue in their positions?
And as part of the inquiry/investigation, would advice from the previous operators of the ship be allowed as evidence?

Nothing to do with anyone on the bridge, there has been some mud throwing, but none of it has stuck!

 

[John Newman]

Good news that Canberra has arrived!


But mean while back at the ranch....

Report regarding Choules on NineMSN today:

Navy still not sure why Choules broke down

At a Senate Estimates hearing the DMO is saying they are still not sure why the Transformer failed. Also this paragraph regarding the return to service date:

"Repairing Choules could cost up to $10 million and it won't be able to return to service until January (2013) at the earliest or April (2013) at the latest."


It was only a few days ago that I saw this on the Navy website:

On The Record: Chief of Navy

Vice Admiral Griggs stated that on current plans, Choules whould have the repairs completed in December (2012).

December/January is probably the date if they only replace the one failed transformer, and maybe the April date is if they decide to go ahead and replace all the others too.

 

[John Newman]

It’s quite amazing that every time a politician opens their mouth on the new LHD, it’s about humanitarian role of the ship as if it’s not a warship of RAN, it’s like they want to paint her white with a big red cross on the side. If they wanted a hospital ship they could have got one a dame sight cheaper.

Hull of huge Navy ship arrives in Port Phillip Bay - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

'Super ship' to boost Melbourne - Yahoo!7 News

You gotta love news reports!

The news presenter in the 7 news clip said:

"It's a $3bn high tech SUPER SHIP, and it will be built here!!"

The reporter then says the hull has been under construction for the last 18mths.

Then the BAE representative says it will add "probably about $500m into the local economy".

And at the end the reporter says, something like, ".. doesn't come cheap, a $3.3bn bill for Canberra and her sister ship".


Wow, I'm soo excited, a "high tech Super Ship"!!!

As I said at the beginning, gotta love "accurate" news reporting!!

 

[the road runner]

One question i have is,"Australia dose not have a dry dock to accommodate our LHD"?
Are we building one or will these ships go back to Spain for hull painting/ maintenance?

Nice to see HMAS Canberra in Australia

EDIT: I assumed we did not have a dry dock big enough as it was stated on 9 News.Thank you guys

 

[Trackmaster]

One question i have is,"Australia dose not have a dry dock to accommodate our LHD"?
Are we building one or will these ships go back to Spain for hull maintenance?

Nice to see HMAS Canberra in Australia

Not correct about the dry-dock. The LHDs will fit into Cairncross dry-dock in Brisbane.
Cairncross will be very useful when both LHDs are finally home-ported in Brisbane.

 

[John Newman]

One question i have is,"Australia dose not have a dry dock to accommodate our LHD"?
Are we building one or will these ships go back to Spain for hull painting/ maintenance?

Nice to see HMAS Canberra in Australia

Surely the Captain Cook Dry Dock in Sydney would be large enough??

See links:

User:Saberwyn/Captain Cook Graving Dock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Captain Cook Graving Dock


The dock is, approx, 347m long x 45m wide x 14m deep.

The LHD's are, approx, 230m long x 32m wide x 7.2m draft

 

[t68]

Surely the Captain Cook Dry Dock in Sydney would be large enough??

See links:

User:Saberwyn/Captain Cook Graving Dock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Captain Cook Graving Dock


The dock is, approx, 347m long x 45m wide x 14m deep.

The LHD's are, approx, 230m long x 32m wide x 7.2m draft

The 43000t Battleship HMS Anson used it in 1945 which has a similar foot print to Canberra class, can’t see why not.

 

[hauritz]

It was only a few days ago that I saw this on the Navy website:

On The Record: Chief of Navy

About halfway through the press release there is this quote

The articles state that both “HMAS Choules and the civilian charter vessel Ocean Protector are due out of Navy service in 2016”. This information is misleading in that ACV Ocean Protector is not in Navy service as it is chartered by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Services.

Is that right?

Is the plan to withdraw HMAS Choules by 2016?

If it isn't then that is a strange mistake for the navy to have in its own press release.

 

[John Newman]

The 43000t Battleship HMS Anson used it in 1945 which has a similar foot print to Canberra class, can’t see why not.

Exactly my point.

If we go to the extreme end of current warships, potentially a Nimitz Class carrier could fit too, see link:

Nimitz-class aircraft carrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nimitz class are:

Length - 332.8m (overall), 317m (at waterline)
Beam - 76.8 (flight deck), 40.8 (at waterline)
Draft - 11.3 (max navigation) - 12.5 (limit)

Pretty tight, but there is a few metres to spare with the length and beam.

The issue is draft, going to be dependent on the height of the tides, so a ship like Nimitz would, I assume, need a high tide to enter safely.

If a Nimitz could potentially fit, then there should be no problem with a US Navy LHD or LHA.

Canberra and Adelaide should fit no problem at all.

 

[the road runner]

Ran media have just posted a clip on the LHD arriving

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsLDPWSY1Q&feature=g-all-u"]LHD arrival in Port Phillip Bay - YouTube[/nomedia]

 

[Raven22]

About halfway through the press release there is this quote



Is that right?

Is the plan to withdraw HMAS Choules by 2016?

If it isn't then that is a strange mistake for the navy to have in its own press release.

The Choules was only bought to operate for five years (until the next major service or whatever it is called). Technically the Choules isn't the solution to the sea lift requirement of JP2048, but I daresay as we get close to 2016 that will change.

 

[icelord]

The Choules was only bought to operate for five years (until the next major service or whatever it is called). Technically the Choules isn't the solution to the sea lift requirement of JP2048, but I daresay as we get close to 2016 that will change.

And i think they meant to say ADS Ocean Shield, ala Skandi bergden, which will be out of service end of next year anyway and given to customs, without coming out of their budget...for free during budget cuts...can you tell im impressed with her? i was under the assumption she could be used for long haul up here instead of a frigate. Ocean Protector was in darwin 3 weeks ago but may have been on a customs cruise.
It would be a stupid decision to get rid of choules once the LHDs are online, and with this govt. im expecting her to be sold to brazil in 2016 if they stick around next november

 

[Marc 1]

...our last line of defence ..... gone .............:eek

Not quite... The Admirals Barge that conveyed Her Maj on Lake Burley Griffin seems in tip top shape. One killick armed with a 9mm - there's your security right there...

Pfffttt .... Doubters!