HMAS Success (OR 304) - Operational History

Operational History

In 1986, Success was part of the multi-national fleet that entered Sydney Harbour to mark the 75th anniversary of the RAN. Prior to the ceremonial entry, Success and two other replenishment ships (one United States Navy, one Royal Navy) were tasked with replenishing the assembled fleet: a competition between the three ships saw Success replenish more vessels than the other two.

Success formed part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War. The ship was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 19 September to 28 October 1999. Although not recognised at the time, an overhaul of the RAN battle honours system, completed in March 2010, saw Success granted the honours "Kuwait 1991" and "East Timor 1999" for these deployments.

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

During 2006, Success was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian response to the 2006 East Timorese crisis. 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 HMA Ships Newcastle and 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. The task group was stood down in late December 2006, with all three ships returning to port.

On 20 February 2007, Success intercepted a boat carrying 85 Sri Lankans, who were suspected of attempting to enter Australia illegally. These were the last asylum seekers to be processed under the Pacific Solution policy before its cancellation.

Success was deployed as part of Operation Resolute for three months in 2008. While assigned to Resolute, the vessel was deployed with several other RAN vessels to take part in RIMPAC 08, a multi-national naval exercise. During RIMPAC, on the night of 23 July, Success completed her 3,000th Replenishment at Sea (RAS): a dual-replenishment of USS Chung-Hoon (port side, 2,999th RAS) and Anzac (starboard side, 3,000th RAS).

On the morning of 13 March 2009, Success was one of seventeen warships involved in a ceremonial fleet entry and fleet review in Sydney Harbour, the largest collection of RAN ships since the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. The replenishment ship was one of the thirteen vessels involved in the ceremonial entry through Sydney Heads, and anchored in the harbour for the review.

In May 2009, while Success was on exercise in South-East Asia, the ship's Commanding Officer was alerted to an alleged sex gambling game aboard, which challenged male sailors to record their sexual activities with female sailors in a 'ledger', and awarded them prize money based on who or where they had sex. This was one of several incidents during the three-month deployment; two bars in Manila were damaged during shore leave, while at another bar in Qingdao, several sailors were involved in a public sex act. Three male sailors were removed from Success when the ship docked in Singapore, and were sent back to Australia to participate in a formal inquiry; this inquiry was found to be flawed because of bias and the denial of support to the three accused, and a second, independent inquiry was set up under former judge Roger Gyles in February 2010. The first part of Gyles' inquiry report was released in February 2011, which stated that there was an entrenched culture of sexual harassment, bullying, and predatory sexual behaviour towards female sailors, coupled with alcohol-fuelled misconduct, particularly amongst the male sailors of the ship's marine engineering department. Gyles found that although the harassment and misconduct had been occurring as early as 2004, failures to respond to earlier complaints led to a breakdown in discipline aboard Success. The former judge was unable to prove the existence of the claimed ledger, but found many of the other claims to be correct, including evidence that male sailors had placed bets around having sex with a particular female sailor.

At the end of 2009, the Department of Defence released a request for tender for modification of Success into a double hull vessel, allowing her to meet International Maritime Organisation standards for oil tankers. The tender was awarded to Singapore-based ST Marine (a subsidiary of ST Engineering), with the conversion to be made during 2011. The ship sailed to Singapore in November for a naval exercise, after which she was to enter dock for the 14-week conversion, but problems in the contract delayed the dockyard start date, and Success was ordered back to Sydney, via HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, so the ship's company could take leave with family while the contract was finalised. Work on the ship started in late December 2010, with the main conversion work completed by the end of April 2011. In May 2011, a civilian contractor working on the ship died after falling overboard. Success left Singapore in late May, and returned to Sydney.

Success is due to undergo maintenance for most of 2013. During this time, the Spanish oiler SPS Cantabria will be deployed to Australian waters to operate in support of RAN assets, while providing the opportunity to train Australian personnel on systems similar to those in the Spanish-designed Hobart- and Canberra-class ships being acquired.