Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Success celebrated her ‘pearl’ anniversary of 30 years of service to the Navy on April 23, 2016.
The ship hosted an informal reception that included current serving members and partners, previous commanding officers, members of the commissioning crew and representatives of the ship builders.
Construction on Success began in 1980 at Cockatoo Island, Sydney. She was the last warship built at the Naval dockyard.
Commanding Officer Captain Justin Jones said the ship had an extensive history straddling peace, war and the spectrum of operations in between.
“Since commissioning in 1986, Success has deployed on 17 operational deployments, six Fleet Reviews and has held the Duke of Gloucester Cup, the fleet’s highest honour, on two occasions,” Captain Jones said.
The Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessel has steamed 909,670.34 nautical miles and should achieve one million nautical miles prior to decommissioning.
“She has also spent eight years or 27 per cent of her commission underway,” Captain Jones said.
Her Excellency Lady Stephen, wife of the then Governor General, His Excellency Sir Ninian Stephen, launched Success on the 3 March 1984, before she commissioned.
HMAS Success, along with the RAN tanker HMAS Sirius, will be replaced by Navantia-built replenishment ships that are expected to enter service in early 2020s.