Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jura said:

now noticed inside
Air Warfare Destroyer: Project Update Quarter ONE, 2018

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:
"Brisbane will be delivered to the Commonwealth in the middle of this year, with commissioning by the Royal Australian Navy scheduled for later this year."
etc.

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Australia’s second air warfare destroyer ‘Brisbane’ recently completed her Category 5 (CAT 5) sea trials off the coast of Adelaide, the Royal Australian Navy has announced.

The destroyer got underway for the trials in November 2017.

The Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance which is in charge of delivering the three ships in the class to the navy first tested the Brisbane’s propulsion, control and navigation systems before undertaking the more advanced phase of evaluating the ship’s combat and communications systems.

During CAT 5 sea trials, the functional performance of the Mission System as a whole was verified as a pre-requisite to enable the AWD Alliance to deliver Brisbane to the defense department for provisional acceptance.

“During this period some of Brisbane’s crew were fortunate enough to participate and support the trial process, and played a crucial role in assisting the civilian contractors through this process to achieve the desired outcome,” the navy said.

The successful completion of NUSHIP Brisbane’s CAT 5 trials is another critical milestone that places Brisbane within firing distance of her October commissioning date.

Brisbane is the second of three AWD destroyers to be built for the Australian Navy. The lead ship in the class, HMAS Hobart, is already in service and the third ship was launched

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The United States has told Australia in the clearest terms yet that it would like Australia to participate in naval and air shows of strength that challenge China’s claim over artificial islands.

The commander of US Marines in the Pacific, Lieutenant General David Berger, said during a visit to Canberra on Friday that each country had to make its own decisions but the US would “absolutely” welcome Australia taking part in so-called freedom-of-navigation operations.

The US has lately signalled it plans to step up its own operations in the contested South China Sea to demonstrate to Beijing that its claims over waters around man-made islands are illegitimate.

Asked whether joint American-Australian patrols would be welcomed by the US, General Berger said: “Obviously that’s Australia’s decision. Would we welcome that? Absolutely yes.”

Such operations - particularly those that send naval ships within the crucial 12-nautical mile territorial zone around the artificial islands - have been carried out by the US.

They have been discussed in Australia but have not been carried out.

General Berger stressed the Australian Defence Force was highly capable and “on the same par” with the US.

“From a military aspect, when we try to deter somebody from doing something, I look at it in two aspects: one is capability, and it’s best if that’s a kind of group capability, not a unitary one. And the second one is a will part of it. Do you have the commitment, the resolve to take action? One without the other - not very effective.”

Asked whether it would be helpful if more countries than just the US carried out such demonstrations of resolve, General Berger said: “Absolutely yes, but they’ll have to determine the methods that … how much and when and where they can do it.”

Each country could find their own way to fit into the overall regional signal to Beijing that its claim over the waters was not recognised, he said.

Despite previous pledges not to militarise the artificial islands it’s been building, Beijing has placed installations and missile systems on the islands and even landed bombers there.

It has been gradually adding to those military facilities over the past two years, leading to fears it plans to impose control over the seas through which large volumes of world trade pass.

General Berger said that if countries did not fly over or sail close to this features, they were defacto recognising China’s claims, which have been dismissed under international law.

“You’re ceding territory if countries don’t demonstrate ... free and open skies,” he said. “If you don’t demonstrate that … international right, then you’ve got a problem.”

While many analysts believe China now has effective control of the South China Sea and cannot realistically be dislodged, General Berger said the US still expected Beijing to remove its military facilities.

“As long as their weapons systems are on those features, I don’t see how that adds to regional stability,” he said.

He said China should want to keep the seas open.

“China’s gotten to where it is because of a very stable region underwritten by a security posture for 70 years. Why would they want to destabilise it?” he said.

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Lethe said:

Selection announcement to be made in May and it's now (effectively) the 24th, can't be long now...

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Jura said:

how was it LOL!

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dtulsa said:

According to my friends the Aussie decision will be next week with T26 considered the heavy fav.

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Jura said:

it's the second article with the same hooey I saw today, so I decided to link
Australia tipped to buy British naval frigates in $35 billion deal with old partner

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Jura said:

yeah
1 minute ago

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dtulsa said:

I don't know if t26 is the right one but it certainly beats any LCS Junk for ours wish the navy would just eliminate all LCS stuff from consideration already

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