Page 7 - newcastle decommissioning booklet

East and in early May she departed Sydney. Newcastlevisited Kochi, India, before arriving in the Gulf of Oman later that month to
take up Operation SLIPPER duties as part of CTF 150; conducting patrols to disrupt terrorist organisations and their related illegal activities, such as drug smuggling, that funds terrorism. One of her firsttasks was to provide medical support to an injured seaman on board the merchant ship Perla.
NewcastlealsobecamethefirstRAN warship since 1985 to visitTanzania, while
conductinga portvisitinmid-June 2013. She was then involved in the search for the crew of a Taiwanese fishing vessel that had caught fire off the east coast of Africa.
In July she operated as part of CTF 152 undertaking maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf, after which she returned to Red Sea patrols and anti-piracy patrolsintheGulfofAden.Newcastle returned to Australia in October.
The ship spent 2014 in Australian waters, takingpartinExerciseKAKADU14offDarwin during September and also standing by for OperationRESOLUTEtasking.Asecuritypatrol of the North West Shelf Oil and Gas Platforms was also conducted. The followingyear saw
her deploying again to the Middle East in April as part of Operation MANITOU with her main task being anti-narcotics patrols along the 'Hash Highway' near the GulfofAden. During her deployment she searched several vessels and seized and destroyed over
1500 kilograms of narcotics; mainly heroin. Newcastle returned to Australia in September.
All of 2016 was spent in Australian waters, undertakingtrainingand taking part in Exercises KAKADU and SINGAROO. In November the frigate was involved in Operation KRAGLE, the interceptionof a vessel of interest off the Australian east coast on behalf of the Australian Federal Police (AFP). An 816 Squadron Seahawk was embarked as well as a specialist boarding party. The vessel was located, boarded and escorted back to the port of Newcastle and handed over to the AFP.
Newcastleconducted herfinaldeployment to the Middle East Region in 2017. She departed Australia in June and after a visit to Kochi, India, commenced operations in early July. Her deployment involved patrolling the Central Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, and the Gulf ofAden, and despite several boardings no
narcotics were seized. In September while escortingUStankersthroughtheStraitof Hormuz three Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy vessels approached the shipsbutwerewarned offbytheuseofflares. Duringthisdeployment, Newcastleoperated
a ScanEagle UAV for surface searches. The frigatedeparted theMiddle EastinNovember and returned to Australia in early December.
During February and March 2018 she took part in Exercise OCEAN EXPLORER with other RAN and RNZN units, before circumnavigating Australia, conducting a PASSEX with the French Jeanne D'Arc Task Group and taking part in ExercisesSEA RAIDER and KAKADU.
She returned to Sydney in October that year. Newcastle entered her final year of service in 2019 and in February deployed with HMAShips Canberra and Success
^*-i
Adelaide Class Frigate, Guided Missile (FFG) Sydney, Australia
21 February 1992
Lady Mayoress Margaret McNaughton
December 1993
Australian Marine Eng (Consolidated) Williamstown
06 VLNC
Length 13H. 1 metres
Beam 13.7 metres
Draft 4.5 metres
Full Load Displacement 4,267 tonnes Speed 29 knots
Range 4500 nautical miles 184
2 GE LM 2500 gas turbines 2auxiliaryelectricretractable propulsors
Image:HMASNewcastlefiresaStandardMissile(SM-2)as partoftheSurfacetoAirMissileExercise(SAMEX) during RIMPAC 2010.
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