HMAS Success (AOR 304)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other ships of this name, see HMAS Success.

Career (Australia)
HMAS Success during Operation Talisman Sabre 2005
Builder:	Cockatoo Island Dockyard
Laid down:	9 August 1980
Launched:	3 March 1984
Christened:	23 April 1986
Motto:	"Strive to Win"
Fate:	Active
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Durance class tanker
Displacement:	17,933 tonnes (full load)
Length:	157.2 m
Beam:	21.2 m
Draught:	8.65 m
Propulsion:	2 Pielstick 16 PC2-5 V 400 diesel engines, driving two shafts
Speed:	19 knots
Complement:	220
Armament:	2 x Phalanx Mk 15 close-in weapon systems, 4 x 12.7 mm heavy machine guns
Aircraft carried:	May carry 1 x Sea King or equivalent

HMAS Success (AOR 304) is a Durance class multi-product replenishment oiler laid down by the Cockatoo Island Dockyard at Sydney in New South Wales on 9 August 1980, launched on 3 May 1984 and commissioned on 23 April 1986. HMAS Success is the largest ship to ever be built in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and is the largest ship to be built in Port Jackson (the port of Sydney). It was also the final major vessel to be constructed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard.^[1]

[edit] Operational History

Success formed part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War and provided support to the Australian-led forces which deployed to East Timor in 1999 and 2006.

In 2005, Success was one of several Australian warships to participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2005, a series of joint RAN-USN war games.

In late November 2006, Success was one of three Australian warships sent to Fiji during the leadup to the 2006 coup d'état by Fijian military forces against Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Success joined HMAS Newcastle, and HMAS Kanimbla; the other two ships having sailed in the first week of November. The three vessels were to be used in the event of an evacuation of Australian citizens and nationals, but not as a military force.^[2] The task group was stood down in late December 2006, with all three ships returning to port. In February 2007, Success was involved in an immigration operation that caught 42 Sri Lankan Immigrants attempting to enter the mainland.

The Australian Department of Defence predicts that HMAS Success will reach the end of her useful operational lifespan sometime between 2015 and 2017^[3]