Construction starts on first Australian Navy auxiliary oiler and replenishment ship

Shipbuilder Navantia held a steel-cutting ceremony on Monday to officially start the construction of the Royal Australian Navy’s auxiliary oiler and replenishment ships (AORs).

The ceremony follows the successful completion of the critical design review.

Navantia was awarded the contract to construct the ships which will replace the Navy’s current supply ships HMA Ships Success and Sirius. The new AORs are scheduled to be delivered by 2019 and 2020.

Managing director of Navantia Australia Francisco Baron said today marks an important milestone in the SEA1654 project.

“Today we have reached the first major milestone in the delivery of this key enabling capability to Navy. Navantia understands the importance of meeting targets at the initial design and build stages to deliver a capability on time and on budget and that’s why the importance of cutting steel today, on schedule, is so important,” Baron concluded.

Australian industry will play a key role in the build of the AORs with a minimum $120million of investment into Australian products, skills and expertise. As part of this, 4500 tonnes of the steel has been sourced from BlueScope.

In addition to BlueScope’s steel the AORs Integrated Platform Management System – the system that controls and monitors all the platform systems – will be built in Australia by NSAG, Navantia’s joint venture with Adelaide based SAGE Automation.

Hobart’s Taylor Bros will supply a range of services including hospital, laundry and galley fitouts while SAAB Australia will supply the combat management systems and Raytheon Australia will supply the communications systems.