Australia’s second air warfare destroyer ‘Brisbane’ starts sea trials

Royal Australian Navy’s future air warfare destroyer (AWD) Brisbane has started her first phase of sea trials, the alliance in charge of delivering the destroyers announced on Monday.

The second of three destroyers to be built will spend the coming weeks on sea trials, marking further progress towards her delivery to the Royal Australian Navy next year.

This first phase of sea trials will test the ship’s propulsion, manoeuvring, control and navigation systems and will be followed by a more advanced phase of sea trials next year to test Brisbane’s combat and communications systems.

“Our workforce of more than 1,700 in Adelaide has improved and evolved the production and set to work of these ships, with our whole team working hard to achieve this milestone ahead of post-reform schedule targets,” said Paul Evans, AWD Alliance General Manager.

The AWD enterprise partners include the Australian defense department, Raytheon Australia as the combat systems integrator, ASC as the shipbuilder and Navantia as the shipbuilder manager.

Raytheon Australia managing director Michael Ward commended the team on today’s achievement. “As the combat systems integrator for the AWD program, Raytheon Australia has applied its highly skilled Australian workforce of 350 architects, systems engineers and project managers to the AWD program over the last decade,” he said.

Mid-next year, Brisbane will be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy to join her sister ship, HMAS Hobart, and will be followed in quick succession by the delivery of the third and final Air Warfare Destroyer, Sydney, in 2019.