Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service
Encyclopedia
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
element of the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
. The service currently forms the Navy's Submarine Force Element Group
Force Element Group
The Force Element Groups of the Australian Defence Force are the operational capabilities.Each of the component commands has a set of FEGs. The FEG operational commanders report to the component commanders , who in turn report to the operation's Task Force commander...
(FEG) and consists of six Collins class submarines
Collins class submarine
The Collins class is a class of six Australian-built diesel-electric submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy . The Collins class takes its name from Australian Vice Admiral John Augustine Collins; all six submarines are named after significant RAN personnel who distinguished themselves in...
.
The Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service has been established four times, with the initial three attempts being foiled by combat losses and Australia's economic problems. The modern Submarine Service was established in 1964, and has formed an important element of the Australian military's capacity since that date. While the Submarine Service has not seen combat since World War I, Australian submarines have conducted extensive surveillance operations throughout South East Asia.
History
The Royal Australian Navy's submarine service has been established four times since 1914.1914 to 1945
Australia's first submarines were the British E class submarineBritish E class submarine
The British E class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D class submarine. All of the first group and some of the second group were completed before the outbreak of World War I....
s AE1
HMAS AE1
HMAS AE1 was an E-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy . She was the first submarine to serve in the RAN, and was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, on 14 September 1914, after less than seven months in service...
and AE2
HMAS AE2
HMAS AE2 was an E class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy . She was commissioned into the RAN at Portsmouth on 28 February 1914 and was scuttled little more than a year later in the Sea of Marmara after being hit by enemy shellfire during the Battle of Gallipoli.-Construction and...
. These submarines were built in Britain and arrived in Australia in 1914. Following the outbreak of World War I, both boats took part in the occupation of Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
in German New Guinea
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
in September 1914. During this operation, AE1 disappeared on 14 September off Cape Gazelle, New Britain
New Britain
New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...
. It is probable that she was wrecked on a reef during a practice dive, although as of 2008 she is yet to be found.
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Battle of Gallipoli
The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. AE2 was the first British submarine to penetrate the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
, achieving this task on 25 April 1915. AE2 operated in the Sea of Marmora for five days and made four unsuccessful attaks on Turkish ships before being damaged by a Turkish gunboat and scuttled by her crew on 30 April. These attacks are the only occasions an Australian submarine has fired in anger.
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British J class submarine
The J class of submarines was a seven submarine class developed by the Royal Navy prior to the First World War in response to claims that Germany was developing submarines that were fast enough to operate alongside surface fleets...
to Australia; HMA Submarines J1
HMAS J1
HMS J1 was a Royal Navy J class submarine built by HM Dockyard at Portsmouth in Hampshire and launched on 6 November 1915.-Service history:J1 operated in patrols in the North Sea...
, J2
HMAS J2
HMS J2 was a J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Portsmouth in Hampshire and launched on 6 November 1915....
, J3
HMAS J3
HMS J3 was a J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Pembroke Dock in Wales and launched on 4 December 1915....
, J4
HMAS J4
HMS J4 was a J-class submarine built by HM Dockyard at Pembroke in Wales and launched on 2 February 1916.She was transferred to Australia on 25 March 1919 and operated out of Geelong until 12 July 1922, when she was paid off....
, J5
HMAS J5
HMS J5 was a First World War J class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth....
, and J7
HMAS J7
HMS J7 was a J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard Devonport in Plymouth and launched on 12 February 1917....
. These submarines arrived in Australia with their tender in April 1919 and were based at Osborne House
Osborne House (Geelong)
Osborne House is a historic building built in 1858, located in North Geelong, Victoria, Australia.-History:Osborne House was built in 1858 for local squatter, Robert Muirhead, who named the mansion after Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, England...
, Geelong from early 1920. The boats were in poor mechanical condition, however, and spent most of their service in refit. Due to Australia's worsening economic situation, all five boats were decommissioned in 1922, and were scuttled later in the decade.
The Australian submarine service was established a third time in 1927, when the British O Class
Odin class submarine
The Odin class submarine was a class of nine submarines developed and built for the Royal Navy in the 1920s. The prototype was followed by two ships originally ordered for the Royal Australian Navy, but transferred to the RN in 1931 because of the poor economic situation in Australia, and six...
submarines and were commissioned. These submarines sailed from Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
for Sydney on 8 February 1928, but did not arrive in Australia until 14 February 1929; numerous mechanical problems delayed their delivery voyage. Due to Australia's poor economic situation
Great Depression in Australia
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging incomes, and...
, the O Class boats proved to be unaffordable and were placed in reserve in 1930, before transferring back to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1931. As a result, the Royal Australian Navy did not operate any submarines during World War II, though the obsolete Dutch submarine K.IX was commissioned as HMAS K9
HMAS K9
HMAS K9 was a submarine that served with the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.-Construction:...
22 June 1943 and 31 March 1944 and used for anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
training purposes.
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Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
and Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
were important bases for Allied submarines during World War II. A total of 122 United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, 31 Royal Navy, and 11 Royal Netherlands Navy
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
submarines conducted patrols
Allied submarines in the Pacific War
Allied submarines were used extensively during the Pacific War and were a key contributor to the defeat of the Empire of Japan. During the war, submarines of the United States Navy were responsible for 55% of Japan's merchant marine losses; other Allied navies added to the toll. The war against...
from Australian bases between 1942 and 1945. Fremantle was the second largest Allied submarine base in the Pacific Theatre
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
after Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, Hawaii.
1945 to present
Following World War II the Royal Navy's 4th Submarine Flotilla was based in Sydney from 1949 until 1969. The flotilla, which varied in size between two and three boats, was used to support the Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand NavyRoyal New Zealand Navy
The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force...
in anti-submarine warfare training, with the operating cost split between the two nations. In the early 1960s, the British Government advised the Australian Government that reductions in the Royal Navy conventional submarine force meant that the 4th Flotilla was to return to the United Kingdom.
The impending withdrawal of the British submarine flotilla sparked the fourth attempt to establish an Australian submarine service. While the Department of Defence advised the government that three to six submarines should be purchased for training purposes, following the intervention of then-Senator John Gorton
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH , Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.-Early life:...
the Government instead approved the purchase of eight submarines to form a submarine strike force. Eight British Oberon class submarines
Oberon class submarine
The Oberon class was a 27-boat class of British-built diesel-electric submarines based on the successful British Porpoise-class submarine....
were ordered in 1964, to be built in Scotland in two batches of four boats. Only six boats were delived; the seventh and eighth were cancelled in 1971 to fund the acquisition of ten A-4 Skyhawk
A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft designed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The delta winged, single-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated the A4D...
aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm
Fleet Air Arm (RAN)
The Fleet Air Arm , known formally as the Australian Navy Aviation Group, is the division of the Royal Australian Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft. The FAA was founded in 1947 following the purchase of two aircraft carriers from the Royal Navy...
.
The first Australian Oberon class submarine, , was commissioned on 21 March 1967. She was followed by her sister ships; Otway (1968), Ovens
HMAS Ovens
HMAS Ovens is an Oberon class submarine formerly of the Royal Australian Navy which is now preserved as a museum ship.-Design and construction:...
(1969), Onslow
HMAS Onslow
HMAS Onslow was one of six Oberon class submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy . The submarine was named after the town of Onslow, Western Australia and Sir Alexander Onslow, with the boat's motto and badge derived from Onslow's family heritage...
(1969), Orion
HMAS Orion
HMAS Orion was an Oberon class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy .-Design and construction:The Oberon class was based heavily on the preceding Porpoise class of submarines, with changes made to improve the vessels' hull integrity, sensor systems, and stealth capabilities. Eight submarines...
(1977), and Otama
HMAS Otama
HMAS Otama was an Oberon class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy . Built in Scotland, the submarine was commissioned into the RAN in 1978; the last of the class to enter service...
(1978). Orion and Otama were more capable than the previous four boats, as they were fitted with advanced communications monitoring equipment. All of the Oberon class submarines were based at , on Sydney Harbour. The Oberons proved very successful and saw extensive service during the last decades of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. This service included conducting risky surveillance missions against India and Communist nations in South East Asia. These missions were cancelled in 1992 when an Australian submarine, believed to be Otama, became tangled in fishing nets and was forced to surface in the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
. As part of the Government's Two Ocean Navy policy submarines were homeported at HMAS Stirling
HMAS Stirling
HMAS Stirling is the Royal Australian Navy's primary base on the west coast of Australia. It is located on Garden Island in the state of Western Australia, near the city of Perth...
in West Australia from 1987 and the headquarters of the Australian Submarine Squadron moved to HMAS Stirling in 1994. The Oberon class boats began were gradually decommissioned and replaced with new Collins class submarines
Collins class submarine
The Collins class is a class of six Australian-built diesel-electric submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy . The Collins class takes its name from Australian Vice Admiral John Augustine Collins; all six submarines are named after significant RAN personnel who distinguished themselves in...
during the 1990s. The final Oberon class boat, HMAS Otama, was decommissioned on 15 December 2000.
The six Collins class submarines were the first Australian-built submarines, and the most expensive ships to have been built in Australia. The Collins class submarines were built by the Australian Submarine Corporation
Australian Submarine Corporation
The ASC, formerly Australian Submarine Corporation, is a wholly government-owned Australian naval defence company headquartered at Osborne in Adelaide, South Australia.-History:...
at Adelaide, South Australia and entered service between 1996 and 2003 following extensive trials and modifications to the early boats in the class. The dedicated trials and submarine rescue ship supported these trials between 1992 and 1998. Tests conducted on after she was provisionally commissioned in 1996 revealed serious shortcomings in the submarine's performance, including excessive hull noise and an ineffective combat system. These problems were subsequently rectified and the Collins class submarines currently rank among the most effective conventional submarines in the world.
Like the Oberon class, the Collins class submarines have conducted surveillance patrols. These patrols have included collecting intelligence on East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
ahead of the Australian-led intervention
INTERFET
The International Force for East Timor was a multinational peacekeeping taskforce, mandated by the United Nations to address the humanitarian and security crisis which took place in East Timor from 1999–2000 until the arrival of United Nations peacekeepers...
into the then-Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n province in 1999. While the Collins class submarines' performance has improved over time, their maximum diving depth was permanently reduced following the near-loss of when a pipe burst during a practice dive in February 2003.
In 1998 the Royal Australian Navy became only the second Navy in the world to permit women to serve onboard submarines. The first female submariners began their training at the Submarine Training and Systems Centre in June 1998.
The Submarine Service today
Force Element Group
The Force Element Groups of the Australian Defence Force are the operational capabilities.Each of the component commands has a set of FEGs. The FEG operational commanders report to the component commanders , who in turn report to the operation's Task Force commander...
Headquarters, and all six of the Collins Class submarines, are at HMAS Stirling
HMAS Stirling
HMAS Stirling is the Royal Australian Navy's primary base on the west coast of Australia. It is located on Garden Island in the state of Western Australia, near the city of Perth...
located in Rockingham, Western Australia
Rockingham, Western Australia
Rockingham is a suburb and primary centre in Western Australia south-west of the Perth city centre and south of Fremantle. It has a beachside location at Mangles Bay, the southern extremity of Cockburn Sound. To its north stretches the maritime and resource-industry installations of Kwinana and...
. The majority of the Navy's submarine support facilities are also located at HMAS Stirling, including the Submarine Escape Training Facility. The LR5
LR5
The LR5 is a manned submersible which was used by the British Royal Navy until 2009 when it was leased to support the Royal Australian Navy. It is designed for retrieving sailors from stranded submarines and is capable of rescuing 16 at a time....
submersible
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
, which is contracted to provide the RAN's submarine rescue capability, has been based at nearby Henderson, Western Australia
Henderson, Western Australia
Henderson is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Cockburn.-History:The suburb of Henderson comprises land resumed by the Commonwealth Government in 1915 for defence purposes. A large naval base was planned by Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, and the was area sometimes...
since June 2009.
Under current Royal Australian Navy doctrine, the Submarine Service has the following responsibilities:
- intelligence collection and surveillance;
- maritime strike and interdiction;
- barrier operations;
- advanced force operations;
- layered defence;
- interdiction of shipping;
- containment by distraction; and
- support to operations on land
In early 2007, it was reported that Submarine Service was experiencing severe shortfalls in personnel and had only 70% of its authorised strength of 500 sailors. These shortfalls were reported to have reduced the service's operational readiness and forced HMAS Collins to be temporarily withdrawn from service.
Future submarines
The Collins class submarines will begin to reach the end of their useful life from 2026. In order to meet the in-service date of 2026, advanced design work on the next generation of Australian submarines will begin by 2014–15. At this very early stage, it appears probable that the submarines will be Australian-built conventional submarines equipped with air independent propulsion and advanced combat and communications systems.In December 2007 the Australian Government authorised the Navy to begin planning for the Collins class' replacement
Collins class submarine replacement project
The Collins class submarine replacement project is a Royal Australian Navy effort to replace the Navy's six Collins class submarines with 12 new Australian designed submarines from 2025...
. The Navy will research options for the submarines and will report back to the government in 2011. The contract for the new boats is planned to be signed in 2014 or 2015 with the first new submarine entering service in 2025. It is expected that the submarines will be built by ASC in Adelaide.
Traditions
Australian sailors who qualify as submariners are awarded a badge depicting two dolphins and a crown. This badge (known as a sailor's 'dolphins') was introducted in 1964 or 1965 and was adopted by the Royal Navy Submarine ServiceRoyal Navy Submarine Service
The Royal Navy Submarine Service is the submarine element of the Royal Navy. It is sometimes known as the "Silent Service", on account of a submarine being required to operate quietly in order to remain undetected by enemy sonar...
in 1972.