Adelaide-built air warfare destroyer Hobart nears final stages before sea trials
IF Australia’s latest megawarship was a home renovation, the Adelaide-built Hobart would be in the fitout stage.
IF Australia’s latest mega warship was a home renovation, the Adelaide-built Hobart would be in the fitout stage.
Launched in May, the air warfare destroyer is the first of three ships being constructed at Osborne’s ASC in a project now worth almost $10 billion.
Berthed at the ASC dock, the Hobart is now 88 per cent complete. Fitout is taking place in the ship’s 441 compartments, including crew accommodation units, a library and general office.
This includes putting 100 per cent wool carpet in one of the 18sqm crew cabins, which has four steel bunks (complete with safety belt for rough seas), a shared bathroom, lockers and even book shelves. These are prefabricated off-site then brought in via flat packs — much like a well-known furniture manufacturer.
The Hobart has 185 crew but can sleep 234 people when, for example, crew for the ship’s helicopter are aboard.
The library, which doubles as a wound dressing area if needed during battle, has several computers and hard copies of the manuals needed for the highly complex combat and ship control systems.
Painting inside the Integrated Platform Management System compartment means several computer units were covered when the Sunday Mail toured. This is the nerve centre for the ship’s engines, gas turbines and other operations — except for combat.
Pictures are forbidden in the combat system area, for national security reasons. Soon, the area will be closed to all but a select few as it is tested and activated. Banks of consoles, giant screens and joysticks have been 87 per cent tested onshore but the final integration is critical.
Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance chief executive officer Rod Equid said all of the blocks — essentially giant slices of the hull — for the second ship, Brisbane, had been completed. Final hull consolidation was now happening at Osborne, with 27 of 32 blocks put together.
“The project is progressing well in the lead up to the combat system light-off (activation) activities for the first ship, Hobart, which will be followed by sea trials next year,” Mr Equid told the Sunday Mail.
The air warfare destroyer project will now form part of a national continuous naval shipbuilding program announced by former prime minister Tony Abbott. Frigates will be built in Adelaide as part of a project estimated at $20 billion.