Apparently they are spending more time than expected alongside and not on patrol, as Navy and maintenance contractors battle a growing array of cascading problems with the class.
The Armidale's are an aluminum class, and the op-tempo of naval operation exceeds the parameters that Austal designed for when they bid the design as the replacement for the Fremantle's.
Other contenders, such as Tenix's 55 metre patrol boat (a variant of the inshore patrol boats they built for the RNZN) and the Forgacs / Fincantieri 55 metre design (based on the Italian Coast Guard Diciotti class), were both steel ships. Austal's was aluminium and they sold that to the RAN based on a number of claimed advantages, better speed for the size of the engines, better fuel economy, lighter vessels for their size and lower costs to purchase and being easier to maintain, but while many of those were true, the last most definitely wasn't.
They have had a number of issues, but the big one is that the hull has flexed more than expected in heavy seas, because Navy operates in rougher seas for longer, and that has led to cracking throughout the class, Not just in the superstructure / hull join, but in a lot of other areas, such as the mountings where the engines bolt to the beds, which are part of the hull.
The result is one problem after another, with almost none of the Armidale's making their intended days at sea target which is why Navy is pushing to get the Cape class into service, to take over from the Armidale's.
That means the class is paying off to free up crew for the new boats (and the Arafura's under construction).
HMAS Pirie decommissioned in March last year and the next to go is HMAS Maitland, which paid off today at HMAS Coonawarra, after 16 years service.
The other Armidale's will pay off in relatively rapid succession as the Navy's Cape class come online, something which will accelerate as the Arafura's commission.
Mike
