TSAMTO, September 13. The Australian Ministry of Defense has signed an acceptance certificate for the second of two AOR (auxiliary oiler and replacement ship) supply class transports ordered for the country's Navy.
This was reported by Navantia Australia. Both ships were built in Spain at the Navantia Ria de Ferrol shipyard.
The acceptance ceremony (A304) of the Stallworth took place after the completion of the ship's conversion work carried out for two months at the Stirling Naval Base in Western Australia. Before the official acceptance, the ship passed sea trials, the program of which included testing of combat systems, communications and navigation equipment.
As reported by TSAMTO, in May 2016, the Australian government, following the results of the tender, signed a contract with Navantia for the construction of two supply transports within the SEA-1654 Phase-3 project. The contract value was 642 million Austr. dollars (477 million US dollars). The construction of the ships was carried out in Spain on the basis of the project of the 19500-ton universal supply transport "Cantabria".
In addition, a five-year contract worth 250 million Austr. dollars was signed with Navantia for the maintenance of ships, which will be performed by the Navantia Australia division in Australia.
The ships are designed to transport fuel, dry cargo, water, food, ammunition, equipment and spare parts for supplying warships at sea. In addition, the vessels can be used to combat environmental pollution, provide material support to troops and support humanitarian aid operations.
The steel cutting ceremony for the construction of the lead ship, "Seplay", was held on June 19, 2017. "Seplay" arrived at the Stirling Naval Base in Western Australia on October 5, 2020 for retrofitting with special equipment and subsequent tests. The ship entered the Australian Navy in April 2021.
The steel cutting ceremony for the second transport (A304) "Stallworth" was held on April 4, 2018, the keel laying took place on November 24, 2018, the launching took place on August 30, 2019. The ship left Spain in May 2021 and arrived in Perth on June 21. It is expected that it will enter the combat fleet before the end of 2021.
A large number of Australian subcontractors were involved in the construction of the vessels, 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.
As part of the Australian Navy, two new vessels will replace the 18,221-ton supply transport OR-304 "Success", which was decommissioned in June 2019, as well as the tanker O-266" Sirius " (a South Korean-built vessel purchased in 2004), which is scheduled to be decommissioned in December this year.
