DEFENCE will not say whether its ability to rescue asylum boats has been compromised by a high-seas incident in which seawater gushed into the corroded hull of a navy patrol boat off Christmas Island.The Australian Navy Chief of Staff has already denied allegations that the crew did not properly care for the refugees. As tragic as that is...and it is tragic I'm focusing on the other part of the story.
The incident forced HMAS Bathurst to retire from border patrol duties late last week and limp to Singapore for repairs, just days before the navy was called on to rescue a sunken asylum boat with 150 people aboard.
As many as 100 people are missing, presumed drowned, after the boat sank on Wednesday. HMAS Maitland arrived at the scene, 70km from the Indonesian coast, on Thursday afternoon to search for survivors.
Defence failed to respond to questions submitted yesterday morning from The Weekend Australian about whether the loss of the Bathurst had compromised the navy's rescue capability around Christmas Island at a time when asylum boats were arriving every few days.
These are relatively new boats and they're suffering catastrophic hull ruptures? They're built with the same philosphy as our LCS and this is happening?
These ships look like something the dog dragged home after a couple of days at sea and we're given the explanation that this is how they're designed to weather and yet we have Australian ships limping into port because the hull collapses unexplainably!
Its definitely time to slow our roll with the LCS and make sure the concept is sound.
I don't think this has anything to do with LCS other than the fact that both ships are made from aluminum. From what I've read the Armidale class has been been exhibiting serious defects since they were accepted.
ReplyDeleteso has the LCS=2 class.
ReplyDeleteJust to put things into context, this is the Australian DoD's side of the story...
ReplyDelete'Last week a monitor system on HMAS Bathurst alerted crew to the presence of a small amount of water in a forward bilge. The water was pumped out using the ship’s fitted systems and at no point was the ship or its personnel in any danger.
Further investigation determined that the cause of the water was a small area of aluminium corrosion. The presence of the water was not caused by hull plate cracking.
At the time the boat was assigned to Operation Resolute and was conducting routine patrols in the vicinity of Christmas Island.
The boat was scheduled for a logistics visit to Singapore and has continued with that activity, where repairs will be made. It will follow the usual process for Navy ships requiring minor repairs in foreign ports.'
lets pick out a few key words.
ReplyDeletehull
corrosion
requiring port repair.
this is not a simple matter. hull corrosion serious enough to cause a ship to put in for repairs? serious stuff no matter what the RAN says.