In preparation for delivery later this year, NUSHIP Adelaide will start her final period of sea trials today.
The second of the Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships being built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) will leave the BAE Systems’ Williamstown shipyard and head up the eastern coast of NSW to the Jervis Bay area.
About 200 BAE Systems employees, equipment/system subcontractors, RAN crew members and representatives from the Department of Defence Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group will be on board to support the trials which are expected to last 10 days.
Pivotal to this period of sea trials will be testing of the ship’s combat and communications systems in a range of scenarios to validate the systems’ capabilities. Like her sister ship HMAS Canberra that was delivered by BAE Systems last October, HMAS Adelaide is the largest and most complex type of vessel that the RAN operates.
When she returns from sea trials, NUSHIP Adelaide will be prepared for delivery. The RAN will have the opportunity to perform various routine alongside exercises as it continues to build its capability for crewing the vessel while the ship compartments and systems are progressively handed over to the NUSHIP Adelaide crew.
The crew has already been trained for its role on the RAN’s second Landing Helicopter Dock ship.
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Image: BAE Systems