Australia names future auxiliary oilers

Royal Australian Navy’s future replenishment ships will be named ‘Supply’ and ‘Stalwart’, Australian defense minister Marise Payne announced on Friday. 

The ships will be known as Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels and will replace the current HMA Ships Success and Sirius.

Supply will be the second vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to bear the name that has its origins with the armed tender ship that accompanied the First Fleet to Australia.

Stalwart is being named after two previous Australian Navy vessels, one a destroyer that served between 1920 and 1925 and the second destroyer tender served from 1968 to 1990.

Minister Payne said great care is taken when naming vessels.

“In considering names for classes and ships, the Navy chose names with deep historical roots or names that are uniquely Australian,” Minister Payne said.

“For these ships, we have been able to achieve both. Supply was instrumental in establishing the British colony and Stalwart, like the Australian Navy itself, has its origins in the Royal Navy and subsequently two Australian ships.

Minster Payne said that today the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, will conduct the tradition of placing a coin in the ship at the keel laying at the Navantia shipyard in Ferrol, Spain.

Navantia held a steel-cutting ceremony in June this year to officially start the construction of the oilers.

“When these ships enter service from 2020, they will be an important part of the future fleet that the government has committed to in the 2016 Defence White Paper,” minister Payne said.

Supply will be built in two years, with full operational capability scheduled for 2022.