BRIEFS

European tour

Defence Minister Robert Hill has been to France and Spain to visit ship yards and discuss options for Australia’s two major naval acquisitions projects, the amphibious ships and air warfare destroyers worth $8 billion.

Senator Hill visited the French shipbuilding group Armaris and the Spanish shipbuilding group IZAR to discuss their candidate designs for Australia’s new amphibious ships.

Bunbury visits Cape York

HMAS Bunbury (LCDR Andy Schroder) recently completed a seven-week South West Pacific deployment to ports that included Apia, Noumea, Port Vila and Lautoka.

The previous two years have consisted of OPs Cranberry and Relex patrols operating out of Darwin, Broome and Gove.

A highlight of the deployment was the return to Australian waters and the subsequent passage through the Inner Great Barrier Reef enroute Cairns to Darwin.

During the passage the patrol boat anchored in the vicinity of Cape York and a landing party went ashore to hike the Cape, arriving at the northern most point of Australia.

Bunbury’s sailors knew they were almost home when, “Ops normal” was piped and they were tasked to conduct fisheries boardings and subsequently towed three apprehended FFV’s into Gove.

Cessnock commendations

While recently alongside her homeport of Darwin, personnel from HMAS Cessnock (LCDR Richard Stevenson) were presented with commendations.

LSMT Scott Winchester was awarded a COMNORCOM Commendation by ACDRE S Walker for his outstanding contributions to Cessnock’s performance whilst undertaking OPs Cranberry and Relex II tasking.

LSCK John Carter and LSCIS Scott Busby were also awarded Commanding Officer’s Commendations for their longstanding contributions to the ship.

Permanent protection

Navy’s Beecroft Weapons Range has gained permanent environmental, cultural and heritage protection under a new management arrangement.

Previously administered by the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH), Defence has assumed responsibility for the Range, one of Navy’s key training sites, used for exercises such as ship to shore gunnery practice.

Settlement reached

A settlement has been reached on all outstanding commercial issues relating to Collins Class submarines.

The settlement signals the end of long and complex legal negotiations between Defence, the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) and Kockums AB of Sweden.

The settlement provides a sustainable basis to increase Australia’s in-country capability to support its world-class submarine fleet.

Sidewinder cleared

US Navy officials have declared the AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile program cleared to enter full production.

The program is expected to produce up to 10,000 missiles for US customers and 5,000 for export.

Merger options

A project merger between the Argentine and Chilean navies could prove beneficial for their individual plans for the construction of offshore patrol vessels (OPV).

The OPV projects are intended to provide increased control and protection of marine resources.

Mining new depths

Twenty ships and 1,600 naval personnel recently participated in multinational mine-counter measure (MCM) and diving exercises in the Straits of Singapore and off Bintan Island.

Co-hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL), Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand took part in the exercise.

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