THE R.A.N.’s TASK

Training and preparedness are designed to ensure that the R.A.N. could meet its responsibilities in time of war. These responsibilities are to,

Provide a contribution to Allied Naval Forces in our areas of strategic interest; Escort Australian military convoys to operational areas;

Protect, in conjunction with the R.A.A.F., within the Australian area, shipping carrying essential imports and exports;

Co-operate with sister services in general operations, includitig the defence of the Australikn mainland and territories; and

Carry out offensive operations against the enemy.

 

NEW STRENGTH

The guarantee that the R.A.N. will he able to continue to meet its responsibilities in the future lies in an intensive shipbuilding programme in Australia and overseas. H.M.A.S. Perth, the first of the three CHARLES F. ADAMS Class guided missile destroyers, is due to commission in the United States in May 1965, and should be in Australia by the end of that year.

The second of the destroyers, H.M.A.S. Hobart, is scheduled to commission in November 1965, and the third, H.M.A.S. Brisbane, in 1967.

These CHARLES F. ADAMS Class ships are powerful, all-purpose destroyers equipped with the TARTAR medium range missile for air defence, five-inch guns, and the latest submarine detection equipment.

Australia’s new IKARA anti-submarine missile system will give the destroyers a formidable anti-submarine offensive capability.

 

In Britain, four OBERON Class submarines are on order, and the first, H.M.A.S. Oxley, will be completed in December 1966. These advanced conventional submarines will meet Australia’s anti-submarine training requirements and have an offensive capability. In Australia, two more of the highly successful Type 12 frigates are on order, one from Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney and the other from Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne. The keels are due to be laid early in 1965, and the frigates will be based on the same design as the four recently commissioned Type 12 ships (Parraniatta, Yarra, Stuart and Derwent).

The two new ships will be fitted with the IKARA anti-submarine missile system and SEACAT anti-aircraft missiles, both of which weapons will he installed progressively in the four completed frigates. The Type 12’s have proved to have extremely good sea keeping qualities making them very reliable anti-submarine ships.