Australien — Navy’s Submarine Force gets back to business with third boat at sea

The Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy’s Sub­ma­rine fleet has been bol­stered by the return of HMAS Dechaineux to Fleet Base West in West­ern Aus­tralia.

Source: Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence Click to enlarge

There are now three Navy sub­marines ready for sea. 

The boat’s arrival has been warm­ly wel­comed by the Chief of Navy Vice Admi­ral Russ Crane. “HMAS Dechaineux’s home­com­ing marks a major improve­ment in the state of our sub­ma­rine force,” Vice Admi­ral Crane said. 

HMAS Dechaineux joins HMAS Waller and HMAS Collins on the list of Sub­marines ready for sea. A gen­er­a­tor fault forced all of them along­side for repairs at the begin­ning of the year. 

The Aus­tralian Navy, The Defence Materiel Organ­i­sa­tion and the Aus­tralian Sub­ma­rine Cor­po­ra­tion have spent the past five months work­ing togeth­er to get Australia’s sub­ma­rine fleet back to sea. 

“Hav­ing three sub­marines ready for sea means we are back to hav­ing a viable and effec­tive mar­itime deter­rent”, Vice Admi­ral Crane said. “Nor­mal main­te­nance cycles will mean we won’t always have three ready at the same time but this is a major step forward.” 

HMAS Dechaineux’s return to WA today allows Navy to crew three ves­sels and have the remain­ing three sub­marines in reserve. 

“Our crew­ing lev­els are also strong and I remain con­fi­dent we can raise a fourth crew as sched­uled by the end of 2011,” Vice Admi­ral Crane said. 

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