Battle Honours
The first battle honours for an Australian ship was for the Victorian Naval Forces sloop HMVS Victoria ("New Zealand 1860-61").
Prior to 1989, the battle honour system of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was linked to that of the Royal Navy. The British Ministry of Defence and the Admiralty were responsible for approving and assigning battle honours, although from 1947, this was done on advice from the RAN Badges, Names and Honours Committee. The only uniquely Australian battle honour during this time was "Vietnam 1965-72" (and smaller date units thereof) for deployments to the Vietnam War. Ships of the RAN inherited honours from British ships of the same name, in addition to Australian predecessors.
In 1989, the RAN Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Michael Hudson approved a decision to have Australian warships only carry battle honours earned by previous Australian vessels. The creation and awarding of battle honours came completely under RAN control.
A complete overhaul of the RAN battle honours system was unvelied on 1 March 2010, to celebrate the navy's 109th anniversary of creation. New honours were created for operations during the 1990s and 2000s—the last approved honour prior to this was "Kuwait 1991", for Gulf War service—and the service history of previous vessels was updated to include 'due recognition' of previous actions.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Royal Australian Navy
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