The Royal Australian Navy celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the arrival into Sydney of its first submarines, HMA Ships AE1 and AE2 on Saturday with a commemorative event at the Navy Heritage Centre in Sydney. With the first surface flotilla arriving in Australia on 4 October 1913, the ar
More than a hundred members of Australian Navy’s New Entry Officer Course (NEOC) 50 embarked in HMAS Choules for their sea training deployment – a key milestone in their initial training to become qualified officers in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). NEOC is the foundation course for most new off
HMAS Darwin has again intercepted a suspected drug smuggling vessel operating in international waters, seizing 786 kilograms of narcotics with an estimated street value of $30 million. Darwin’s boarding parties boarded the suspicious dhow in the Arabian Sea and spent approximately 23 hours searchi
ADV Ocean Shield has arrived back in the search area. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21, was deployed from the vessel around 2am this morning. It remains underwater on its search mission. Over the next week, Bluefin-21 will search the remaining areas in the vicinity of the acoustic sig
Austal Limited (Austal) has delivered the second of eight Cape Class Patrol Boats being supplied to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service under a $330 million design, build and in-service support contract. Cape Byron was delivered four weeks ahead of its original delivery date. Aust
The Royal Australian Navy’s Collins-class submarine HMAS Sheean has taken advantage of a mid-ocean encounter by getting in some anti-submarine warfare practice on its way to Singapore for a major exercise. HMAS Sheean will participate in Exercise Bersama Shield 2014 with other Australian Defence F
ADV Ocean Shield arrived at Geraldton, Western Australia, yesterday to begin preparations to receive spare parts related to the transponder mounted on the Ocean Shield and the transponder mounted on the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21. The repairs are necessary to correct a hardware issu
Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Wollongong has made a mercy dash to embark two injured Australians who were rescued by an Indonesian merchant vessel in the Arafura Sea. An Indonesian registered civilian offshore supply ship, MV POSH Shearwater, initially responded to a vessel in distress ca
The Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Base West based operational tanker, HMAS Sirius, entered Sydney Harbour this week as part of a visit to Garden Island on the east coast. At over 190m in length, and displacing more than 46,000 tonnes with a full load, Sirius is currently the largest ship in the Na
The Chief of Navy of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Vice-Admiral (VADM) Ray Griggs, was conferred Singapore’s prestigious military award, the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Tentera) [or the Meritorious Service Medal (Military)] by President Tony Tan Keng Yam. Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen presented
The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21, has been recovered about two hours into its first mission since returning to the search area so a communications problem could be investigated. During the recovery, Bluefin-21 was damaged but was able to be repaired expeditiously with spare parts on b
HMAS Darwin operating in the Indian Ocean in international waters, 40 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia, intercepted a suspected drug smuggling dhow on 13 May 2014, seizing 449 kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $132 million dollars. Darwin’s Commanding Officer, Comma
More than 1 000 Canadian sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen will participate in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world’s premier combined and joint maritime exercise, from June 26 to August 1, in and around the Hawaiian Islands. Canadian participation underlines the strategic importance of the
In April, a group of 23 indigenous recruits from some of the most remote northern parts of Australia visited HMAS Watson as a part of the Defence Indigenous Development Program (DIDP). Aside from having an opportunity to see what is arguably the best view in the country, the goal of their visit wa
