Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove receives a Royal Salute from the band and Commissioning Guard during HMAS Adelaide’s commissioning ceremony. (Defence)
The second Canberra class amphibious assault ship built for the Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Adelaide, was commissioned into the fleet at Garden Island on Friday.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, Minister for Defence Senator Marise Payne and Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett attended the ceremony, which was held on the aircraft hangar deck.
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“This is a proud and momentous occasion that symbolises the culmination of the amount of time, support and hard work that has gone into realising this capability,” said Captain Paul Mandziy, Commanding Officer of HMAS Adelaide.
“As the second of class, lessons learnt from HMAS Canberra, our sister ship, has sped up our introduction into service, but a lot of effort and energy was still required from my ship’s company to get us prepared for today. Our work does not stop with commissioning; in the new year we will conduct further trials at sea before commencing our work-up cycle.”
What a momentous day for the RAN and Australia; commissioning the second of the largest warships the RAN has ever operated and bringing into service a capability that goes a long way to rectifying that which was lost with the retirement of the RAN’s last aircraft carrier.
Pontius the pilot
says:
A capable asset, but with a profile like that, it could only operate where guaranteed air superiority existed. It would be an Exocet operators dream..
Raymond
says:
That’s why in a high threat environment it’d be part of a task force with the support and protection of other RAN and coalition ships, the AWD in particular.
Steve
says:
Australia does not need a surface fleet.
It is a vulnerable liability.
Advanced submarines, nuclear powered and armed, and lots of them are what is needed.
But how to source, crew and pay for them?
mick181
says:
How many troops, tanks., Vehicles & helicopters can a Virginia class SSN move, how many aircraft can a Astute class SSN shoot down, how much HADR can a Barracuda class SSN deliver.
Yes we need submarines but we do need surface ships. There is no Submarine that can carry out the missions that the LHD will be used for. Your statement is ridiculous and fortunately our ADF chiefs wont be listening to you
Harry
says:
Submarines and Surface ships are very different.
Subs are great spy assets and, especially, threat deterrents during peace time. Thus they are necessary; and for the amount of ocean we have 12 is a minimum! (especially considering the deterioration of security now and into the future)! During conflict they are essential to keep at bay enemy forces, eliminate enemy shipping and make strategic strikes.
The LHDs are quite different. I used to be very sceptical of such a ship. Only two, and they stick out like nothing else. I am seriously concerned that don’t have inbuilt close-air defence weapons like CWIS (which they bloody well should have) in addition to AWDs. These ships are used for power projection, and during disasters etc naval diplomacy etc.
I have actually come around on these. They will be very useful for Australian national strategy, and of course defence… Though I doubt they could be used to invade New Zealand. They just need indigenous air-defence like CWIS or CRAM!
mick181
says:
I don’t know if fitting CIWS to these ships would be very hard at short notice if req. If deployed they would have a Anzac/Anzac2 in close company for close air defence and a AWD DDG for area air defence.
Raymond
says:
An ignorant and uninformed comment, Steve. A mixed, balanced force is what’s needed. They all have a role to play, both surface and subsurface assets. What one can do, the other can’t, and vice-versa.
So do you think that navies such as the USN, the JMSDF, the PLA-N, the RN or one of many others, have no idea what they’re doing? Because they all have surface and subsurface vessels!
George B
says:
I remember when the HMAS Brisbane deployed to the first Gulf war they installed the Phalanx CIWS at very short notice. Obviously the systems taken off the retired FFGs are in storage and could possibly installed on the LHDs if required. As for the need for these ships – how quickly people forget how much use we had from the Kanimbla and Manoora. These ships were constantly deployed on missions and were retired early because they were worn out by constant use. Our 6 subs on the other hand can’t get enough crews to fully utilise them. We we’ll never be able to man 12 of their replacements unless they are extremely automated!
iscover
Raymond
says:What a momentous day for the RAN and Australia; commissioning the second of the largest warships the RAN has ever operated and bringing into service a capability that goes a long way to rectifying that which was lost with the retirement of the RAN’s last aircraft carrier.
Pontius the pilot
says:A capable asset, but with a profile like that, it could only operate where guaranteed air superiority existed. It would be an Exocet operators dream..
Raymond
says:That’s why in a high threat environment it’d be part of a task force with the support and protection of other RAN and coalition ships, the AWD in particular.
Steve
says:Australia does not need a surface fleet.
It is a vulnerable liability.
Advanced submarines, nuclear powered and armed, and lots of them are what is needed.
But how to source, crew and pay for them?
mick181
says:How many troops, tanks., Vehicles & helicopters can a Virginia class SSN move, how many aircraft can a Astute class SSN shoot down, how much HADR can a Barracuda class SSN deliver.
Yes we need submarines but we do need surface ships. There is no Submarine that can carry out the missions that the LHD will be used for. Your statement is ridiculous and fortunately our ADF chiefs wont be listening to you
Harry
says:Submarines and Surface ships are very different.
Subs are great spy assets and, especially, threat deterrents during peace time. Thus they are necessary; and for the amount of ocean we have 12 is a minimum! (especially considering the deterioration of security now and into the future)! During conflict they are essential to keep at bay enemy forces, eliminate enemy shipping and make strategic strikes.
The LHDs are quite different. I used to be very sceptical of such a ship. Only two, and they stick out like nothing else. I am seriously concerned that don’t have inbuilt close-air defence weapons like CWIS (which they bloody well should have) in addition to AWDs. These ships are used for power projection, and during disasters etc naval diplomacy etc.
I have actually come around on these. They will be very useful for Australian national strategy, and of course defence… Though I doubt they could be used to invade New Zealand. They just need indigenous air-defence like CWIS or CRAM!
mick181
says:I don’t know if fitting CIWS to these ships would be very hard at short notice if req. If deployed they would have a Anzac/Anzac2 in close company for close air defence and a AWD DDG for area air defence.
Raymond
says:An ignorant and uninformed comment, Steve. A mixed, balanced force is what’s needed. They all have a role to play, both surface and subsurface assets. What one can do, the other can’t, and vice-versa.
So do you think that navies such as the USN, the JMSDF, the PLA-N, the RN or one of many others, have no idea what they’re doing? Because they all have surface and subsurface vessels!
George B
says:I remember when the HMAS Brisbane deployed to the first Gulf war they installed the Phalanx CIWS at very short notice. Obviously the systems taken off the retired FFGs are in storage and could possibly installed on the LHDs if required. As for the need for these ships – how quickly people forget how much use we had from the Kanimbla and Manoora. These ships were constantly deployed on missions and were retired early because they were worn out by constant use. Our 6 subs on the other hand can’t get enough crews to fully utilise them. We we’ll never be able to man 12 of their replacements unless they are extremely automated!