Australia — HMAS Melbourne commences operations in the Gulf

The first of the new­ly upgrad­ed Ade­laide Class Guid­ed Mis­sile Frigates (FFG), HMAS Mel­bourne, has com­menced mar­itime secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions in the Mid­dle East, replac­ing the ANZAC Class Frigate (FFH) HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta.

HMAS Mel­bourne in the Hau­ra­ki Gulf off the coast of New Zealand Source: Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence Click to enlarge

HMAS Mel­bourne, now under the com­mand of Com­man­der Michael Har­ris, with an embarked Ship’s Com­pa­ny of 230, returns to the Mid­dle East fol­low­ing pre­vi­ous mis­sions in 2002 and 2004. She now boasts new mis­sile and tor­pe­do sys­tems as part of the exten­sive capa­bil­i­ty enhance­ments pro­vid­ed by the FFG upgrade project. 

Chief of Joint Oper­a­tions, Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Mark Evans, said that the men and women of the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy pro­vide essen­tial naval sup­port to coali­tion mar­itime secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions and the inter­na­tion­al effort to counter ter­ror­ism and pira­cy in the region. 

“The work that our Navy peo­ple do is vital in strength­en­ing mar­itime secu­ri­ty in the Gulf of Aden and the envi­ron­ment around the Horn of Africa, and I have no doubt that the ship’s com­pa­ny of HMAS Mel­bourne will rise to the chal­lenge and con­tin­ue the good work already com­plet­ed by HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta,” Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Evans said. 

Par­ra­mat­ta, com­mand­ed by Com­man­der Heath Robert­son, com­plet­ed a suc­cess­ful six month rota­tion of mar­itime secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions and will return to her home base in Syd­ney next week. 

Melbourne’s Oper­a­tion SLIPPER deploy­ment is the 24th to the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tions under­tak­en by a ship of the Aus­tralian Navy. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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