Navy's landing ship limps home for propulsion repairs

Gestart door Lex, 18/06/2012 | 22:56 uur

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Lex

THE Royal Australian Navy's new landing ship, HMAS Choules, which was recently bought from the British with great fanfare, has been forced to limp back to Sydney after losing half its engine power.

The amphibious ship was on its way to an exercise off Queensland when the problem developed.

The navy said yesterday that Choules had left Sydney on June 13 to take part in an exercise in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

The defect occurred on one of the six transformers that form part of the ship's propulsion system.

"This reduced the ship's propulsion power by 50 per cent," the navy's statement said.

"The ship's commanding officer made the safe and prudent decision to return to Sydney in order to have the defect rectified."

The navy said it had been advised by the ship's previous operator, Britain's Royal Fleet Auxiliary, that the defect was very unusual.

Australian fleet commander Rear Admiral Tim Barrett said a technical investigation had begun. The navy and the Defence Materiel Organisation were working closely with the manufacturer of the transformer to have it repaired so that the ship could return to sea as soon as possible, he said.

Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston said the problem highlighted the parlous state of the Australian navy's amphibious ship fleet.

"HMAS Choules was purchased from the United Kingdom last year to fill the gaping hole left in the amphibious ship fleet due to problems with HMAS Tobruk, HMAS Sirius and HMAS Success," he said.

"This government has hardly painted itself in glory with the management of its amphibious fleet, and we are now facing the lowest level of funding in Defence since 1938 so I am not inspired with confidence that this is going to get better any time soon."

The rest of the amphibious ships in the navy had faced massive problems in recent years, Senator Johnson said.

"It was revealed in the recent Senate estimates hearings that HMAS Tobruk has cost $65 million over the past three years with little or no capability to show for it," he said.

"I am advised it will be ready for sea trials soon but it is due for decommissioning in 2014."

HMAS Sirius has been in planned maintenance for most of this year and HMAS Success has not been operational since December 2010, with $86m spent on the ship to try to fix its problems.

The Australian
June 19, 2012 12:00AM