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OR 304 Success

HMAS Success, based on the French 'Durance' Class Ship, was built in Australia by Cockatoo Dockyard Pty Ltd at Sydney, New South Wales. She was launched from their slipway on 03 March 1984 by her launching Lady, Her Excellency Lady Stephen, wife of the then Governor General of Australia and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 23 April 1986. She is the largest ship built in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and also the largest ever built in the port of Sydney.

HMAS Success is an Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) vessel of 18,000 tonne fully loaded and 157.2 metres in length. She is not the first ship to be named Success. In all, 19 British men-of-war ships are known to have carried the name, most during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Contemporary maritime operations demand that naval combat units be supplied with fuel, ammunition, food and stores whilst underway at sea. HMAS Success is designed for this task. She is capable of day and night Replenishment at Sea (RAS) to ships alongside and concurrently by her embarked helicopter to other ships in company via Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP). Four main Replenishment at Sea stations are fitted, two of which have dual functions and can be used to transfer either fuel or solid cargo. RASoperations are controlled from the Cargo Control Room amidships. During solid cargo transfer a traveller riding on a tension highline between Success and a fixed point in the receiving ship supports the load.

During fuel transfers, the highline is used to support a hose which hangs from several travelling saddles and which has a quick connecting probe to mate with the fuel receiving point in the ship being fuelled. The solid cargo transfer stations are designed to handle sizeable loads of up to nearly 2 tonnes. All winches use hydraulic transmissions with electro hydraulic controls. The Replenishment at Sea [RAS] system is designed to cope with the extreme demands caused by ship motion in rough weather and varying sea states. HMAS Success thus enables RAN fleet units to operate with a greater degree of flexibility and independence from shore support than has previously been possible from other RAN sources.

The Ship's Company of 220 is required to operate and maintain the propulsion, replenishment, auxiliary machinery and support systems in Success. Providing underway replenishment support to the fleet is a challenging and continuing task requiring technical proficiency and high seamanship standards. As would be expected in a modern warship, accommodation and recreation areas are spacious and well designed. Meals are provided from one centralised galley that includes a bakery. The medical centre includes an operating theatre, infirmary and dental surgery.

The Westland Sea King helicopter is an USA design but produced by Westland Helicopters in the UK. It is powered by two Rolls Royce Gnome H1400-1 engines, each producing 1600 shaft horsepower. It is crewed by two pilots, one observer (tactical coordinator) and one aircrewman. The primary role of the Sea King is to provide support to the Fleet as a utility aircraft. It is also capable of carrying a weapon load of homing torpedoes and/or depth charges. Other roles include Search and Rescue, logistics support and training. A Sea King can lift 3 tonnes externally and can carry up to 23 armed troops. The versatility and reliability of this aircraft enables the crew to confidently carry out their mission in any weather conditions, day or night, thus making it a valuable asset to the RAN.

The 1976 Defence White Paper identified the need to develop Australia's self-reliance through investing in key industrial capacities. The local construction of the Fleet Underway Replenishment Ship HMAS Success reflected this policy. HMAS Success was to be the largest ship built in Australia for the RAN. In 1977, the Government of France was awarded the design contract for $2.7 million based on the DTCN-PR Durance Class Ship. In October 1979, Vickers Cockatoo Dockyard Pty Ltd was awarded the construction contract for $68.4 million (in November 1978 prices) with ship delivery by 31 July 1983. In June 1983, however, the contract was renegotiated, extending the acceptance date by three years and increasing the project cost to $187.3 million (in January 1983 prices). When the vessel was finally commissioned in 1986, the total project cost was estimated at $197.41 million.

The main reason for the cost and time overrun on HMAS Success was a protracted dispute between the Commonwealth and the Vickers Cockatoo Dockyard Pty Ltd over the drawings and specifications contained in the ‘Production Package’ (PP) from the French company, Directions Techniques Des Constructions Naval. There is evidence that the Department of Defence significantly underestimated the extent of the differences between the original building specifications and the French PP. A 1983 Auditor-General's report criticised the department for failing to ensure that the French company had the PP needed for an Australian build. On the other hand, Defence argued that the builder had deliberately underestimated the value of its original contract price in order to recover the costs from a significantly more expensive design package.

The construction of HMAS Success also suffered from industrial relations disputes and skills shortages. In October 1982, Senator the Hon. Anthony Messner noted: " …the problems which have occurred at the builder's yard…relate to the attracting and retaining of suitable skilled workers after a long gap in shipbuilding at that dockyard. Also, one very significant contribution to the delay has been industrial disputation because that builder has been a target for the unions' shorter working hours campaign." The Minister’s response also contained an answer to the issue of the international competitiveness of an Australian build: ‘As to whether the French and/or South Koreans could build a ship in less time than it will take to build HMAS Success, it has to be acknowledged that Australia's policy in relation to this kind of development is for work to be undertaken in Australia. Consequently, the question of vessels being built in other countries does not arise’.

The 1986 Joint Committee of Public Accounts report noted that 171 days had been lost through industrial disputation. It also identified insufficient staff resources to handle the design modifications, poor onsite representation leading to confusing quality assurance arrangements and an inadequate project management structure and resources. These failings led Defence and the naval shipbuilding sector to prioritise project management and human resources in future naval shipbuilding projects.

On 08 October 2010 Defence selected ST Marine as the preferred tenderer to convert the Royal Australian Navy tanker HMAS Success to be double hulled. ST Marine represented the best value for money and the shortest time out of service. The work will be carried out in Singapore, where the ship had a scheduled visit while on deployment in Asia and involves the double hulling of the HMAS Success to meet International Maritime Organisation standards for environmental protection against oil spills.

ST Marine's tender came in under budget. As a result, funds saved on this project would be re-directed towards the Ship Repair and Maintenance Industry to Advance Work in priority repair and maintenance work required onHMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora, for which a precautionary Operational Pause was recently initiated by theChief of Navy. This work will occur concurrently at Garden Island, Sydney. Overseas companies were allowed to bid for the work on HMAS Success as this is a one-off project - work of this type will never again be carried out in Australia; and no Australian company had ever undertaken work of this type. The on-going repair and maintenance of Navy ships happens in Australia and will stay in Australia. This includes the regular and on-going repair and maintenance of HMAS Success.

The first HMAS Success

The first HMAS Success (I) (H02) was an S Class DD built by Wm Doxford & Son Ltd., Sunderland UK. She was laid down on the 29 June 1918, launched 27 January 1920 and decommissioned 21 May 1931. She was eventually sold on 04 June 1937. HMAS Success (I) was 276ft in length with a beam of 26ft 9ins and a draft of 10ft 10ins. Her displacement was 1075 tons and had a speed of 36kts.

HMAS Success (I) armament consisted of three 4 inch Mk IV BL; one 2 pounder Qf; one .303 inch Maxim MG; two .303 inch Lewis MG; one twin .303 inch Lewis MG; two twin 21 inch Mk IV TT; two DC trowers and four DC chutes. Originally built for the Royal Navy, she was to be renamed RABAUL by the RAN but this was rescinded on 11 June 1920 and the original name of Success was retained.