Huon Class Minehunter - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

The design of the Huon class is based on the Italian Lerici class; specificly the second run of eight ships known as the Gaeta class. Each ship has a full load displacement of 720 tons, is 52.5 metres (172 ft) long, has a beam of 9.9 metres (32 ft), and had a draught of 4.87 metres (16.0 ft): a slightly greater draught and displacement than the Gaetas. The minehunters main propulsion system is a single Fincantieri GMT BL230-BN diesel motor, which provides 1,985 brake horsepower (1,480 kW) to a single controllable pitch propeller, allowing the ship to reach 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). Maximum range is 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), with a 30% fuel reserve, and the vessels have an endurance of 19 days. The standard ship's company consists of 6 officers and 33 sailors, plus up to 13 trainees or 6 divers. The main armament on a Huon is a MSI DS30B 30 mm cannon; this is supplemented by two 0.50 calibre machine guns. The sensor suite includes a Kelvin-Hughes Type 1007 navigational radar, a Thompson-Marconi Type 2093M variable-depth minehunting sonar, an AWA Type 133 PRISM radar warning and direction-finding system, and a Radamec 1500 surveillance system. Two Wallop Super Barricade decoy launchers are also fitted.

For minehunting operations, the Huons use three 120 horsepower (89 kW) Riva Calzoni azimuth thrusters to provide a maximum speed of 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph): two are located at the stern, while the third is sited behind the variable-depth sonar. Mines are located with the minehunting sonar, and can be disposed of by the vessel's two Double Eagle mine disposal vehicles, the Oropesa mechanical sweep, the Mini-Dyad magnetic influence sweep, or the towed AMASS influence sweep (which is not always carried). To prevent damage in the event a Huon class ship triggers a mine, the ships were built with a glass-reinforced plastic, moulded in a single monocoque skin with no ribs or framework. The ships often work with clearance divers, and are fitted with a small recompression chamber.

Six Huon class ships built in total; all were named after famous Australian rivers (the names of which had been carried by previous RAN vessels). The hull of the lead ship, HMAS Huon, was laid down during September 1995 at the Intermarine SpA Sarzana shipyard in Italy, and was transferred out to ADI's Newcastle facility as deck cargo, arriving on 31 August 1995. Huon was completed in Newcastle in 1999, and the other five ships were constructed completely at the Australian shipyard. All six were completed on schedule, with the last, HMAS Yarra, commissioning on 1 March 2004.