TSAMTO, January 19. Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds announced the signing of the act of acceptance and transfer of the AOR A195 supply transport built by the Spanish company Navantia S. A. (Supply).
The document was signed after the completion of Navantia's retrofitting work in Australia. The ship arrived at the naval base "East" in Sydney, which will be its home port.
As reported by TSAMTO, in May 2016, the Australian government signed a contract with Navantia for the construction of two supply transports under the SEA-1654 Phase-3 project. The cost of the agreement was 642 million Austr. dollars (477 million US dollars). The construction of the ships is carried out in Spain on the basis of the project of the 19500-ton universal supply transport "Cantabria". In addition, Navantia signed a five-year contract worth 250 million austr. dollars for the maintenance of ships, which will be carried out by the division of Navantia Australia in Australia.
A large number of Australian subcontractors are involved in the ship construction process, including Taylor Bros, SAGE Automation, Australian Maritime Technologies, Sofraco Engineering, Capability by Design, Communications Design & Management, Sypaq Systems, ASP Ship Management, Scaf-West and Onsite Rental Group.
The ships are designed to carry fuel, dry cargo, water, food, ammunition, equipment, and spare parts to supply warships at sea. In addition, the vessels can be used to combat environmental pollution, provide material support to troops, and support humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
The steel cutting ceremony for the construction of the lead ship, Suplay, took place on 19 June 2017 at the Spanish company's facility in Fen. The keel was laid in Ferrol on 17 November 2017, and launched on 23 November 2018. The steel cutting ceremony for the second transport (A304) "Stallworth" took place on 4 April 2018, the keel laying took place on 24 November 2018, and the launching took place on 30 August 2019.
Suplay arrived at Stirling Naval Base in Western Australia on 5 October 2020 to be re-equipped with various special equipment that could not be installed abroad for security reasons, including a communications kit, a combat control system, etc., as well as to conduct subsequent tests. The Suplay is scheduled to join the Australian Navy in April 2021.
The second vessel is planned to be delivered to the customer in 2021.
As part of the Australian Navy, two new ships are to replace the 18,221-ton supply transport OR-304 " Success "(Success), which was withdrawn from service in June 2019, as well as the tanker O-266" Sirius " (a South Korean-built vessel purchased in 2004).
