Royal Australian Navy

This chapter considers the sinking of Japanese hellships carrying prisoners of war such as the Montevideo Maru and Rakuyo Maru within the wider context of the global war. It discusses international law, efforts by the Red Cross to protect prisoners transported by sea, and the ramifications for POWs - of all sides, in the Atlantic and the Pacific - of the practice of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Second World War.

Few navies have been immune from mutiny in the twentieth century, but the question of how and why naval discipline sometimes breaks down has received little scholarly attention. This book brings together a set of readable and up-to-date essays examining mutinies in the navies of Russia (the Potemkin mutiny, 1905), Brazil (1910), Austria-Hungary (1918), Germany (1918), France (1919), Australia (1919), Chile (1931), Great Britain (the Invergordon mutiny, 1931), the United States (the Port Chicago mutiny, 1944), India (1946), China (1949), and Canada (1949).

The nature of these incidents varied widely, but all represented a deliberate assault on naval or political authority. The objectives of the mutineers ranged from limited reforms of a purely naval nature to overtly political goals and, in rare cases, to outright revolution. The first twelve chapters in this book address the causes of a particular mutiny, its long-and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. Taking advantage of new research and new methodologies, the contributors provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader.

The volume concludes with an essay by the editors shedding important new light on the dynamics at work in the outbreak, development, and resolution of modern naval mutinies. It shows that mutinies in democratic, western states usually differed fundamentally from those in authoritarian regimes or less-developed societies. In the former, incidents were usually short-lived and non-violent. They tended to spread easily from ship to ship, but the mutineers' demands remained moderate and limited. In the latter, mutinies were less frequent, but were more often characterized by violence, escalating demands, and revolutionary intent.

Looking forward, the authors' conclude that the days when sailors might rebel against their immediate superiors to seize control of a warship are probably long gone. But as long as western states rely on broad and imprecise definitions, incidents will continue to occur that meet all of the legal criteria for mutiny, even if there is a reluctance to use the term. The potential for major naval mutinies probably remains, however, in non-democratic states like China and throughout the underdeveloped world.

The Future Frigates Program SEA 5000 is the largest naval shipbuilding project in Australian history, the centre piece of the continuous National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise. This paper, by former Parliamentary Secretary for Defence David Feeney shows that Australia will be paying nearly double per frigate as compared to the contemporary US and UK Frigate programs. Even though the Strategic Update 2020 highlights Australia’s rapidly deteriorating strategic environment, Feeney shows the Government has deliberately structured the frigate program so that it delivers capability more slowly (extended to 2044) and at greater cost (an additional A$9.3 billion). He argues the key reason for this deliberate slow down in the construction rate of the frigates is to enable the “implementation of a stable, deliberate and continuous shipbuilding drumbeat” so as to “end the ‘boom and bust’ cycle of naval shipbuilding, delivering sovereign capability and certainty for industry.” The paper explores the challenges of shipbuilding, the policy tensions and trade offs, and offers suggestions for how to get SEA5000 back on track.

The Tragic Blunder!  The fate of the HMAS Australia - Guardian of the Southern Seas

On 12 April 1924, the former HMAS Australia, the largest warship in the Australian fleet was towed 50km east of Sydney Heads and scuttled with full military honours. Eulogies were read, strong naval men were wet eyed and public outrage flared at the loss of the first flagship of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). This highly significant vessel was Australia's only battlecruiser, was the grandmother/ centrepiece of the Royal Australian Naval Fleet, and prevented German aggression in the South Pacific during World War I. The wreck lay undisturbed for many years until its accidental discovery in 400m of water 1990. However, due to its extreme depth, a survey was not undertaken of the site until the RAN (at the request of the Heritage Branch) directed a suitable deep water ROV unit (US CURV) to undertake the first photographic survey of the site in 2007. This paper presents a potted history of this vessel which led to its sinking, along with the survey results and analyses which have documented key diagnostic elements of this, Australia's largest protected Historic Shipwreck.

The tragic sinking of HMAS Voyager (II) after a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (II) off Jervis Bay in 1964 remains Australia's worst peacetime naval disaster. The controversial incident saw Voyager cut in two, with the loss of 82 lives, and 232 survivors rescued from the sea. The final resting place of the Voyager (II) has yet to be found, but it is considered one of NSW most significant wrecks. On the 50th anniversary of the sinking a commemoration service was held close to the last known location of the wreck at sea.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage in collaboration with the Marine National Facility have been actively searching for the wreck. Once located, the site will be nominated as a Historic Shipwreck for its social values under the NSW Heritage Act 1977. More significantly, the wreckage sites will form a focal point for relatives and friends to grieve and acknowledge the service and sacrifice of those onboard. This incident highlights that the social significance of a wreck is often as important as its archaeological remains.

On morning of 1 July 1945 hundreds of warships and vessels from the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Netherlands Navy lay off the coast of Balikpapan, an oil refining centre on Borneo’s south-east coast. This offensive to land the veteran 7th Australian Infantry Division at Balikpapan was the last of a series amphibious operations conducted by the Allies to liberate areas of Dutch and British territory on Borneo. It was the largest amphibious operation conducted by Australian forces during the Second World War. Within an hour some 16,500 troops were ashore and pushing inland, along with nearly 1,000 vehicles.  More than 33,000 personnel from the 7th Division and Allied forces were landed in the amphibious assault.
Balikpapan is often cited as an example of the expertise achieved by Australian forces in amphibious operations during the war. It was a remarkable development. Four years earlier, the capability of Australia or even the United States to conduct amphibious operations in the South-West Pacific Area was limited if not non-existent. This paper provides a brief outline of the development of amphibious operations in the SWPA during the Second World War.

Muhammad Zarrar Haider endeavours to identify a significant existing or future capability which can be scaled back, abandoned or removed from the current Australian Defence Force structure. It has been argued that future submarines can be scaled back from twelve to nine within the framework of strategic guidance.

In late 2013, authorities made a terrible discovery – one that threatened to further derail an already stretched relationship in the middle of the Australia–Indonesia spying scandal. The revelation that an Australian warship, sunk in Indonesian waters during World War II, was being commercially salvaged for scrap metal was met with distress and anger in Australia. Not only was the integrity of the wreck at stake: over three hundred Australian lives had been lost when the ship sank. Their watery graves, protected by the ocean for over 70 years, were now being systematically destroyed. But there may yet be a happy ending to this story – and from the most surprising of quarters. Since 2013, the wreck of the HMAS Perth has become the centrepiece of an ambitious and deeply symbolic program of cultural diplomacy, and a model of collaboration.

“Flat-top fledglings”: Australian naval aviators in the Korean War

In late 1951 the Royal Australian Navy’s new asset, the Carrier Air Group (CAG) from the light aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney (III) went to war. Flying Hawker Sea Furies and Fairey Fireflies during the Korean autumn and winter of 1951–52, Sydney’s CAG earned a reputation for effectiveness and high performance. Operating from a small flight deck that pitched and rolled with the ocean, the CAG confronted formidable North Korean and Chinese anti-aircraft fire, and even weathered a typhoon. During this period three Australian pilots were killed and another was wounded. Australia had begun to develop a naval aviation capability only few years earlier, with the commissioning of Sydney and the formation of its air squadrons in 1948. This rapid development of Australian naval aviation capability from concept through to operations was possible only with the wholehearted assistance of the Royal Navy.
This paper will discuss the knowledge transfer of techniques, experiences, and cultures between naval aviators of the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. It will contribute to a new project on Sydney’s CAG in the Korean War.

Amphibious operations contributed to the success of the Allies in the South-West Pacific Area during the Second World War.

On the morning of 1 July 1945 hundreds of warships and vessels from the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Royal Netherlands Navy lay off the coast of Balikpapan, an oil refining centre on Borneo’s south-east coast. 

This offensive to land the 7th Australian Infantry Division at Balikpapan was the final in a series amphibious operations conducted by the Allies to liberate areas of Dutch and British territory on Borneo. It was the largest amphibious operation conducted by Australian forces during the Second World War. Within an hour some 16,500 troops were ashore and pushing inland, along with nearly 1,000 vehicles. Ultimately more than 33,000 personnel from the 7th Division and Allied forces were landed in the amphibious assault. Balikpapan is often cited as an example of the expertise achieved by Australian forces in amphibious operations during the war. It was a remarkable development. Four years earlier, the capability of Australia or even the United States to conduct amphibious operations in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) was limited, if not non-existent. Between 22 June 1943 and 12 July 1945, United States-led Allied forces conducted more than 60 major amphibious landings in the theatre. The RAN participated in nearly half of them.

An unpublished paper presented at the one-day symposium led by Dr Christine Winter, "A Southern War: Australia, the Pacific and WWI", Australian National University, 28 November 2014. The paper explores Australian military planning before the First World War, with a special emphasis on naval planning, stressing the willingness of war planners to contemplate offensive action, and expeditionary warfare on the part of Australia.

Since the Cold War ended the US Navy has dominated the seas, and this has allowed Western navies to focus on projecting power from the sea, generally in support of land force interventions in failing states. This domination has now changed: accompanying the return of geopolitical tensions are new challenges to American naval supremacy by China and Russia but also by some smaller states like Iran. The seas are now  contested. Western navies are now having to reorient from projecting power onto the land to preparing for a future possible war at sea against
formidable naval powers.

This article is the first of a series of two that aim to provide a new perspective on the Battle of Cape Spada on Crete’s northern coast on 19 July 1940. Cape Spada was one of the first major naval engagements of the Royal Australian Navy in the Mediterranean in the Second World War, when the light cruiser HMAS Sydney (II), leading a force including five Royal Navy destroyers, engaged the two light cruisers of the Regia Marina’s  2nd Cruiser Division (IIa Divisione), RN Bartolomeo Colleoni  and Giovanni delle Bande Nere, sinking the former.
The articles will provide the Italian perspective on this battle. This article will provide background on the genesis, characteristics and employment of the first post-First World War Italian light cruiser force , the 1920s di Giussano -class cruisers, in the run-up to the Second world war in the Mediterranean. The design considerations and weaknesses of the di Giussanos are critical to understand the decision-making of the Italian commander and the outcome of the battle. The second article will describe the battle in detail.

The Indefatigable Class battlecruiser HMAS Australia was the first flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, and played a significant role
in removing the German threat from the Pacific during WWI. On 12 April 1924, as part of post-war international naval arms reduction,
the 179m long vessel was scuttled with naval honours approximately 50km east of Sydney, and came to rest in 400m of water.
The wreck was accidentally discovered by Fugro Australia Pty Ltd during a telecommunications survey in 1990.

The Heritage Division (Office of Environment and Heritage) is leading archaeological investigations of the wreck. With the assistance
of the Royal Australian Navy, Defence Maritime Services and Australia’s Marine National Facility, surveys of the wreck have been
undertaken using ROV (2007) and multi-beam (2013) technology to document the extent and nature of this highly significant site.

The Bureau of Meteorology is scheduled in 2007 to expand its oceanographic services for the Australian community to include operational mesoscale ocean forecasts. The past decade has seen the rapid development of a near real-time global ocean observing system which includes both insitu and satellite instrumentation. The spatial coverage and frequency of observations has provided the capacity for developing ocean prediction systems. Operational oceanography is a significant investment both in terms of human and computational resources, which is being actively pursued in public centres throughout the world. BLUElink is a joint initiative of the Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the Royal Australian Navy to develop this capability for Australia's regional and territorial waters. Numerical ocean prediction is a computationally intensive task with the prototype system requiring resources comparable with numerical weather prediction and similarly takes full advantage of the very latest in high performance computing. In addition, the volume of observational, model and analysis data has demanded a comprehensive data management system. Effective information technology solutions are essential for managing, maintaining and servicing this new capacity to fulfil the needs of the Australian community.

Australia is among the most urbanized people in the world, but the "outback" - the desert and semi-arid areas of the center and the North of the continent - is rarely considered. While the Northern zone has always been considered the likely direction of foreign attack. Few recognize the Spacial Air Service established in 1957, based in the State of Western Australia - everything to the north is desert or arid in climate and conditions.

In late 1951 the Royal Australian Navy’s new asset, the Carrier Air Group (CAG) from the light aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney (III) went to war. Flying Hawker Sea Furies and Fairey Fireflies during the Korean autumn and winter of 1951–52, Sydney’s CAG earned a reputation for effectiveness and high performance. Operating from a small flight deck that pitched and rolled with the ocean, the CAG confronted formidable North Korean and Chinese anti-aircraft fire, and even weathered a typhoon. During this period three Australian pilots were killed and another was wounded.

Australia had begun to develop a naval aviation capability only few years earlier, with the commissioning of Sydney and the formation of its air squadrons in 1948. This rapid development of Australian naval aviation capability from concept through to operations was possible only with the wholehearted assistance of the Royal Navy.

This paper discusses the knowledge transfer of techniques, experiences, and cultures between naval aviators of the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.

The new Australian Liberal-National party coalition government's perspective on national defense and its perceptions of the regional security situation, concluding that the new Australian government is very keep on enhanced military relations with the United States - but it has the problem of trying to convince China that its relations with the USA are not part of some anti-China 'containment plot'.

Australia has.a large land mass and a small population. Given these two important facts, Australian defence forces need long-range equipment that requires low manpower levels for their operations.The competition for the new submarine type for the RAN was bound to be a bitter one. Winning the Australian competition would greatly boost the status of the successful designer/builder team.

Captain Hector “Hec” Waller was one of the most outstanding officers of his generation. An inspirational leader and an aggressive commander, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Bar for his courage, enterprise, and devotion to duty while serving in the Mediterranean during the Second World War.

The problem of the Pacific Nations patrolling their vast Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) - a task virtually impossible for the poorer micro-nations of the central and South Pacific without foreign military and civilian aid. For the smaller nations of the South Pacific, EEZ patrol is a vital aspect of their economic existence.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is coming up to its 84th birthday in October 1995. The year of 1984 will be a year of major change, undergoing major equipment acquisition period, and bases have been rationalized with a number of closures in the past three years, the transfer of many ships and training to the West coast is now in its maturity.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is in a fortunate position of having had all of its major projects escape the present budget cutbacks. There were rumors prior to the August budget that some naval construction projects would be reduced, but this seems unlikely in light of signed contracts.

Lettre confidentielle Asie21-Futuribles n°140/2020-06 © reproduction interdite /45 43 3 Points à surveiller asie21 Inde -Australie Nouvel accord de défense Le nouvel accord de défense entre l'Inde et l'Australie permettra un accès réciproque à certaines bases militaires des deux pays pour un soutien logistique.

The ANZAC ship concept was developed in Australia because of the need to replace the "River" Class vessels and because the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) wanted a larger vessel - something in between the patrol boat and the FFG-7, especially for EES surveillance of ol rigs in heavy seas. In most areas, this is not a special tailored design, but a design of a frigate for late navy that has been passed over to the smaller navies with minimum modifications.

merely as ideological or instrumental pawns in political parties. Thwarting the assumption that women only play second fiddle to men in political parties, either as subordinates or proxies, Bedi argues that women have managed to use the social expectations of their gender creatively, to produce a distinct kind of political presence. This presence borrows heavily from the traditionally allotted cultural and domestic spheres of women, and merges them with their political ambitions and personal styles, to manifest as a system of doing politics, unheard of in the rational-legal definitions of politics. Drawing from the ideas of Laura Ahearn (‘Language andAgency’, Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 109–137, 2001) and Saba Mahmood (Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005) on agency, Bedi contests the jaded template of agency as oppositional, rational and liberal, as is prevalent in the western feminist context. Instead, she fixes her lens on the micro-level dynamics of local transactional politics, where women are key actors. For the women in question here, it is often the co-option of male registers of action, rather than resistance to them, that enables agentive action. Bedi’s own act of wearing a sari, green bangles andmangalsutra (a necklace symbolizing a woman’s marital status) for her fieldwork, which she calls her ‘costume’ (83), and her ability to navigate freely and unhesitatingly amongmale and female party workers, is tellingly agentive and useful. Manifested in the trope of ‘adjustment’, which many of her informants refer to as ‘daily negotiations’ in their domestic lives which enable their public roles, are spaces of agentive action, which can be both conforming or subversive in nature. Within the party’s non-liberal framework on gender relations and its rigid structural restrictions for women, these women locate gaps and seize opportunities for expressing their innovative and unique political personalities. Not only are these women recipients of patronage, they are also fixers and distributors of political favours. This positionality, which enables women to receive, disperse as well as fix political transactions, despite structural odds, is what Bedi has called ‘women’s political matronage’. Bedi’s conceptualization of ‘political matronage’ introduces a new vantage point for investigating the female subject in urban local politics, a subject who is simultaneously powerful and vulnerable, giver and receiver, actor and spectator, conforming and subversive. This book contributes to debates on women in religious and cultural-nationalist political parties in India, and to scholarship on political charisma, brokerage and grassroots-level politics. It argues for a new theory of the ‘feminist political subject’, provoking us to rethink and redefine theoretical boundaries and material markers of women’s engagement with politics, and the intersection of the private, public and political.

The struggle was bitter. The Mediterranean and North Africa were vital theatres for Britain and the Dominions, including Australia, in the war against Germany and Italy. His Majesty’s Australian Ships (HMAS) served in the Mediterranean from the earliest months of the war through to the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, and of these, the most celebrated Australian ships in Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet were the veteran destroyers: HMAS Stuart, Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager, and Waterhen.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is to undergo a major restructuring in the coming decade. This will be so, if the government holds to the recommendations of the 1990 Wrigley Report and a variety of associated reports, all of which found their culmination in May 1991 in a statement to the Parliament by Defence Minister Senator Robert Ray, detailing extensive changes to be made in the ADF over the coming decade.

Should ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) follow the example of Australia in selection their requirements for a new submarine fleet?  Specifically, Malaysia and Thailand. Comparison of Australian and ASEAN submarine environments are compared in the article. Also discussed are various 1000-ton submarine designs available, while selection of design, crew training requirements, and ashore support facilities remain as crucial issues.

The Bureau of Meteorology is scheduled in 2007 to expand its oceanographic services for the Australian community to include operational mesoscale ocean forecasts. The past decade has seen the rapid development of a near real-time global ocean observing system which ...

Comprehensive review article of the state of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the late-80s and plans announced at that time for future procurements.
Extensive charts and graphics, cover shipbuilding plans, ship characteristics, Australian naval bases, naval aviation and order-of-battle. (OOB) in mid-1987.

Australia's Fleet Base West, HMAS Stirling, has had substantial progress in being made towards the creation of a self-sufficient base which will ultimately be home to around half the Australian fleet and all the six "Collins" class submarines.

Background Although much has been published on the effects of the 1990/1991 Gulf War on the psychological health of veterans, few studies have addressed the pattern and timing of post-war development of psychological disorders. Our study aims to identify the most common psychological disorders that first appeared post-Gulf War, the period of peak prevalence and the sequence of multiple psychological disorders. Methods The temporal progression of psychological disorders in male Australian naval Gulf War veterans with no prior psychological disorders was calculated across each year of the post-Gulf War period. DSM-IV diagnoses were obtained using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Results Psychological disorder rates peaked in the first 2 years (1991)(1992) following the Gulf War. Alcohol use disorders were the most likely to appear first. Classification and regression tree analysis found that risk of disorder was exacerbated if veterans had been exposed to a high number of potential psychological stressors during their military service. Lower military rank was associated with increased risk of alcohol disorders, particularly during the first 2 years post-Gulf War. In veterans with two or more disorders, anxiety disorders and alcohol disorders tended to appear before affective disorders. Conclusions Our study found that psychological disorders occur in sequence following Gulf War deployment. Our findings may help clinicians to anticipate, and better manage, multiple symptomatology. The findings may also assist veteran and defence organisations in planning effective mental health screening, management and prevention policy.

The loss of HMAS Sydney (II) was Australia’s worst naval disaster and an enduring mystery of the Second World War. A modified Leander class light cruiser, HMAS Sydney was the pride of the RAN. She was a modern ship, well-armed with eight 6-inch guns and other secondary armament; she was also fast. She had demonstrated her fighting prowess in the Mediterranean during 1940, when she finished off an Italian destroyer and sunk the cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni. When Sydney returned home in February 1941 she received a hero’s welcome. On 19 November, however, the cruiser encountered the German raider HSK Kormoran. The action led to both ships being destroyed. Sydney was lost with hands, 645 officers and men.