Adelaide Completes Final Sea Trials Off the Australian Coast

[MikeJames]

Adelaide Completes Final Sea Trials Off the Australian Coast

(Source: Royal Australian Navy; issued September 10, 2015)

Australia’s second of the Canberra class Amphibious Assault Ships, Adelaide, has returned to Williamstown, Victoria, following the successful completion of sea trials off the south east Australian coast.

The second and final trials focussed on testing the ship’s navigation, combat and communications systems and involved more than 30 Royal Australian Navy personnel, including systems operators, maintainers and chefs.

Commanding Officer Adelaide, Captain Paul Mandziy, described the trials as a critical phase.

“These final sea acceptance trials will determine the shape of the final pre-delivery work package before the ship is delivered to the Commonwealth later this year,” he said.

“Our team is certainly impressing and we have developed excellent relationships with the other 170 sea-riders from the Department, BAE Australia and various sub-contractors.

“We are in an excellent position to leverage from the experiences of our sister ship HMAS Canberra and as a consequence we have built a very close relationship with our peers.

“We also know what challenges to expect and our crew have had the benefit of sea-riding on Canberra and in working with the systems that will be delivered with Adelaide,” Captain Mandziy said.

As the 27,800 tonne warship undergoes completion prior handover to the Department of Defence’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group later this month, personnel are completing critical combat survivability and damage control training.

This is being undertaken at a state-of-the-art training facility in Mascot, Sydney, and also at the Navy's School of Survivability and Ship Safety at Jervis Bay on the New South Wales south coast.

It is expected that the full complement of ship’s company will join the ship in Williamstown by early October.

[SlatsSSN]

Thanks Mike. Any photos to be had of the trials?

J

[MikeJames]

Not yet and the Navy's image website sucks

[MikeJames]

Here's some shots that highlight just how much space there is on Adelaide and Canberra.

The Chook is one of the West's largest helicopters, but there's plenty of room on the flight deck for them. That's not even the widest part of the flight deck either.

Mike

[cootafleet]

Is the flight deck crew surrendering or giving three huzzars for the ARMY

[MikeJames]

Holding up chains and chocks to indicate to the pilot that he is clear to launch.

While there is radio comms between the chook and the flyco, nothing beats a quick visual confirmation, particularly if the ship is operating in EMCON (emmissions control mode)

Mike

[RussF172]

The flight deck marshal stands a long way back with the CH-47s. The down draft is huge and could blow them over so they stand back where the photographer was. It will be very impressive when all the aircraft onboard or in the hanger.

[cootafleet]

The chook in the bottom photo looks like it's had an oil bath I assume it is just wet, or in drilling platform camo.

[HelloSailor]

Hi All ,

Can anyone confirm if " Adelaide " is coming to Adelaide , South Australia in June , specifically arriving 23rd & departing 27th.
Got the scuttlebutt from one of my members from a facebook notification via someone in the Navy.

Cheers,

Jim

[scott154]

Jim, Russ gave me the heads up yesterday about HMAS Adelaide coming on the dates you mentioned and open to the public. But not sure where she will berth. Scott

[RussF172]

That is what I heard from a pretty reliable source. Could change though.