Page 32 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2020
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  32 SEA POWER HOBART CLASS
APRIL 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
 FINAL AWD DELIVERED TO RAN
Nearly 18 years after the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) program was first announced, Defence has taken delivery of the RAN’s third and final Hobart-class ship, the future HMAS Sydney, which will officially join the fleet after commissioning at Fleet Base East on 20 May.
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
    THE provisional acceptance ceremony at Adelaide’s Osborne naval shipyard on 28 February, attended by Defence Min- ister Linda Reynolds, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mike Noonan and several hundred invited guests, marked the conclusion of the $9 billion program to replace six Ade- laide-class guided-missile frigates, the last of which was decommissioned in October 2019, with the 7,000 tonne Aegis-equipped AWDs.
After commissioning, HMAS Sydney will undertake pri- marily combat system work-up activities until the end of the year in preparation for several months of US Navy Combat System Ship Qualification trials (CSSQT).
These will include firings over the Pacific Test Range off San Diego of the destroyer's long range RIM-66 SM-2 Block IIIB and medium range RIM-162 Evolved SeaSpar- row air-defence missiles.
Successful completion of the US CSSQT should then clear the way for final operational capability (FOC) for all three AWDs to be declared simultaneously by VADM Noonan.
Unsurprisingly, Reynolds noted at the acceptance cer- emony that the 13-year AWD construction phase had in- volved challenges but described NUSHIP Sydney as "one of the world's most capable naval vessels", providing cred- ible deterrence, scalable response options, and the ability to withstand counter coercion.
AWD first-of-class Hobart was delivered to Defence in June 2017 and commissioned into the RAN three months later. Delivery was two years and seven months behind the
ABOVE: A number of VIPs were on hand for the ceremony in Adelaide.
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