Two more ships decommission

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MikeJames
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Two more ships decommission

Post by MikeJames »

The Survey Motor Launches Paluma A01 and Mermaid A02 have returned to HMAS Cairns for the last time and will decommission later this month after 32 years service.

Paluma 2 01.jpg

Both ships, together with their sisters Shepperton and Benalla, were built at Eglo Engineering, Adelaide, with the first two commissioning in 1989 and the latter two in 1990. All four have spent the vast bulk of their career operating out of HMAS Cairns.

Mermaid 2 01.jpg

Their replacements are supposed to be variants of the Arafura class OPVs, but that variant hasn't even been designed yet, let alone ordered, so it seems the RAN will be short of hydrographic and survey ships for many years to come.

At the current build schedule the first of the Arafura variants can't commence until 2025 and these will be a mix of mine warfare variants and hydrographic ships, so maybe 2028 commissioning for the first of these variants.

Wonderful forward planning there Navy. :roll:
kitlowran
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Re: Two more ships decommission

Post by kitlowran »

Knew this was coming.. two rollercoaster years on Paluma as XO, will miss her

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MikeJames
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Re: Two more ships decommission

Post by MikeJames »

Sorry Kit. :(

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BsHvyCgn9
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Re: Two more ships decommission

Post by BsHvyCgn9 »

Are they going to donate them to one of the Pacific island nations or are they worn out/not suitable??

B2 :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
kitlowran
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Re: Two more ships decommission

Post by kitlowran »

MikeJames wrote:Sorry Kit. :(

Mike


Oh, nothing to be sorry about at all, she's had a long useful life, had multiple upgrades over that time (single beam to multi-beam). Paluma is currently the longest serving ship in the RAN, AKA The First Lady of the Fleet, and I'm immensely proud to have been part of that.

Understand where you're coming from with talk about possible replacements, but I dare say (though not being in that world anymore) that the future of naval hydrography is going to be increasingly less about ships mowing straight lines across the ocean at 4-6 knots.
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