Australian Secretary of Defence Greg Moriarty, together with a large contingent of Defence senior leaders, launched the Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Enterprise and opened the OPV System Program Office at the Henderson maritime precinct.
The OPV Enterprise brings together Commonwealth and defence industry teams under one roof, to build and sustain the Royal Australian Navy’s new Arafura Class OPVs, the first two of which are being constructed in South Australia, with the remaining 10 vessels to be built in Western Australia. The Arafura Class OPVs, which replace the Armidale and Cape Class patrol boats, will be the Australian Defence Force’s main asset for maritime patrol and response duties and will primarily undertake constabulary missions.
“It is great to see the co-location of Commonwealth shipbuilding and sustainment personnel and Luerssen, CIVMEC and Raytheon industry partners delivering outcomes for our Navy,” said Deputy Secretary National Naval Shipbuilding Tony Dalton.
Head Maritime Systems, Rear Admiral Wendy Malcolm said the establishment of the OPV Enterprise represented an important milestone under the Continuous Shipbuilding Plan. “The launch marks a critical step towards the implementation of Plan Galileo, an ambitious Future Maritime Sustainment Model which ensures our sustainment organisation engages with acquisition teams early in the build process. Evolution of our asset management, supply chain, infrastructure, improved commercial models and professionalisation across the enterprise will be key to success. This process ensures sustainment needs are considered during the design phase, and brings together Defence, primes, small business and service providers to facilitate sustainment of our naval vessels from strategically located ports around the country.
“Not only does this promise to deliver long-term jobs to West Australians and confidence for industry to invest in Perth, but it will ensure our Navy is able to meet all Government tasking in order to protect our nation’s security,” Malcom added.
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Great to have these but they seem to be too slow at 20 knots and seriously under armed given our military threats from the north of us.
Kym, in your recent article for the Australian’s special defence report, you quote the CEO of Lurssen, Mr Nielsen, as saying” For example, there was a reduction in aviation systems not required to support unmanned aerial vehicles while no change was made to the aft deck structural strength.” In the past you have also written articles contradicting this statement. Can you clarify this please.
I was wrong in my reporting about the structure of the rear deck – and hence quoting Mr Nielsen in full to correct the perception. I apologise for my error. The only explanation that I can give is around the entire principle of why the Australian OPVs were down-designed from the parent class.
Another far less likely explanation is that Defence came to their senses and didn’t change the structure of the rear deck – but I still find it completely bizarre that the official position of the RAN is that they will be used exclusively for UAS missions and that a helicopter will never land on them. It also seems crazy to remove the cannisterised missiles – Brunei uses Exocet – because that would vastly increase their firepower at very little cost.
Thank you for the clarification. It is good that they have not changed the deck strength. Their current armament may be all that is needed for their role as a patrol vessel. If they had additional weapons, they may tasked with missions for which they are definately not suited.If this type of mission was needed, them perhaps a specialist corvette with better radar, missiles, sonar, torpedos, etc should be acquired. e.g. type 31/32. However, this would be a huge extra cost and need more manpower.