I think I might have found the proposed design, I almost over looked it, I’ll scan it and post it soon (computer problems).

Another old Minesweeper on public display is the Old WWII Bathurst Class Ship HMAS Castlemaine.

It’s manned by volunteers who had served aboard her or had family serve aboard her, so there is a real sence of connection there. I went right over the ship when I was in the navy here. A friend and I had just seen the launch of HMAS Warramunga FFH-152, and we walked down the road in our uniforms and had a look over it. What really impressed me was the minutes silence the tour guides make people take on the port side 40/60 Bofors in honour of AB Teddy Sheehan who died manning his gun on one of these ships.

Ok Scoot, I’ll try and sort it out for you mate…

The RAN seeing that it has a huge order to place over the next 10 years was looking at buying the F-100’s and LHD’s from Spain in order to obtain a maximum deal discount (Three AWD’s, Two LHD’s and a Fleet Support Vessel). The F-100’s were to be roughly the same size as the Spainish ones but with a higher degree of automation thus reducing the crew for each ship down to 180. The only major difference between the F-100’s and the Aussie proposal was that the RAN ships were to have a flatter hull allowing for better use in littoral areas.

The other major factor was that the RAN wanted a design that is already in production that can accomidate Australian specific changes easily and that all three ships be built here in Australia. Initially the G&C design was only to be built in the US, so how the G&C won this over in the US political field is a big question mark… Are they building them all here or are they building some here and some there or all over there?

Nansen, that’s the new Danish one isn’t it? Nothing bad about it.