HMAS Hobart, first-of-class of Australia’s three new Aegis-equipped Air Warfare Destroyers has completed five weeks of sea trials.
The focus of the trials was to test and verify the ship and its ability to support the Aegis combat system, including demonstration and test of the system across multiple ‘warfare areas in an at-sea environment’.
The Hobart class is a ship class of three air warfare destroyers. Planning for ships to replace the Adelaide-class frigates and restore the capability last exhibited by the Perth-class destroyers began by 2000.
Although the designation “Air Warfare Destroyer”, the destroyers are expected to also operate in anti-surface, anti-submarine, and naval gunfire support roles.
Jim Sheridan, Lockheed Martin vice president of Naval Combat & Missile Defense Systems said:
“This is yet another significant milestone for the Commonwealth and for the Aegis combat system aboard Australia’s first Hobart Class destroyer, capable of simultaneously defending against advanced air, surface and subsurface threats.
Having these three destroyers with the Aegis combat system provides Australia with new game changing capabilities to address modern threats.”
Paul Waterworth, Aegis engineer, Lockheed Martin Australia said:
“Australia is receiving a significant new capability which, as an Australian, I am very proud of contributing towards.
The team is dedicated to ensuring the successful delivery of Hobart’s Aegis capability to the Royal Australian Navy.”
Each ship’s main weapon is a 48-cell Mark 41 Vertical Launch System. The cells are capable of firing the RIM-66 Standard 2 anti-aircraft missile or the quad-packed RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow point-defence missile.
I personally believe that the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand should attempt to synchronise and pool their procurement processes and training and perhaps establish a “surge group”, which would allow the respective nations to draw on “surge group” resources for short periods of intense activity or cover short-term procurement gaps.
We all work with the US intimately in different spheres of operation and train closely so I do not see why not.
The UK and Australia are going through destroyer, submarine and frigate upgrade programmes which, although out of phase, could have been aligned and delivered by new contractor Joint Ventures. We need to move away from the seller-buyer relationship with our key allies and expect to share the work. Yes, we’d sacrifice short term profits but we certainly reap longer term orders, reduced costs and more R&D.
It’s a good ship
Sadly just not enough built
For a country the size of Australia 3 ships is just not good enough.
Australian population 23.1 million – UK population 64.1 million or 2.77 times
By 2020 RAN will have 3 x air warfare destroyers – UK should have 8 Type 45s
RAN 8 Anzac Class Frigates – UK should have 22 Type 23s
RAN 6 SSKs – UK should have 16 SSNs
RAN 2 LHDs – UK should have at least 5 LHD equivalents
RAN planned force expands to 9 frigates (UK 25) 12 SSKs (UK 33) 12 OPVs (UK 33) option for 4th AWD (UK 11)
So you could argue for a country with population and GDP of the UK the current RN fleet is ‘just not good enough’.
I think everyone agrees UK Royal Navy is simply too small and lacking in critical mass.
For a nation of our size we should aspire to delivering a more credible frontline force than current.
I would love to see the MOD openly admit they have made too many cuts and that there is a 10 year plan to sort out the mess.
RN requires all type 26 frigates to be built within the next 8-10 years AND concurrent construction of at least the first 4-6 hull batch 1 type 31 frigates.
HMS Ocean must be replaced with 2 hulls to enable an on all LPHD to be available at all times. We need to remember that with HMS Ocean and the x3 invincible class we always had a helicopter assault carrier available for amphibious landings support.
Type 31 frigate programme needs to be built with no less than 10 hulls minimum ideally 12-14.
meanwhile an air defence/ surface warfare optimised type 26 is very appealing to supplement the too few type 45 destroyers.
Finally we need to simply build 2 or 3 more astute class submarines to really be able to face down the proliferation of high-end Russian submarines being built in large numbers. The Russians have nothing that can match an Astute class currently.
small warfare ships such as mine and hydrographic survey can be accomplished off the same hull of 600-900 tons. A modular low acoustic signature hull design is needed with a crewing requirement of 24-32 personnel.
fantasy fleet time? Not really just need consistent investment and continuous low rate production of 1-2 frigates/ destroyers a year, 3-4 smaller vessels a year of mine warfare/ hydrographic, 1 sub every 24 months, 1 major vessel every 36 months eg lphd, lpd. This is not beyond current and forecast defence expenditure.
Just heard on the radio today that the uk last year gave over £13 billion in foreign aid. Yet we cannot afford to equip and man our armed forces correctly. What a scandal.