HMAS Brisbane (D41)

History

HMAS Brisbane is a US-built Perth-class guided missile destroyer, a converted Charles F. Adams-class destroyer. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has purchased the Shire-class destroyers from the UK, but the RAN believes the Sea Slug missile system has limitations. The Sea Slug is a high-powered weapon with a 92% chance of a solo kill.

Limited by its complex operational requirements, each county-class ship is equipped with a single fire-control radar, which can only identify and strike one target at a time. RAN considered all options and in January 1962 ordered two converted Charles F. Adams-class destroyers from Defoe Shipbuilding in Bay City, Michigan.

The third was ordered in June 1963 as HMAS Brisbane (D41).

The modification requested by the RAN for US ships is the addition of two wide deckhouses between the funnels of the Ikara ASW missile system, which was built to accommodate single-armed missile launchers instead of dual-armed missile launchers. The ships are the first in a series of U.S. designs to serve at the RAN. The Ikara missile is a RAN-launched anti-submarine missile named after an Aboriginal Australian word meaning "throwstick".

Acoustically guided torpedoes have a range of 19 km (10 nautical miles) and are used as a quick-reaction attack on submarines at close range without posing a threat to attacking ships. Torpedoes are designed to fly to the approximate area of ??a target and then dive like a torpedo, giving the submarine less time to react and lock onto the destroyer.

The construction of HMAS Brisbane was commissioned by Defoe in February 1965. While the ship was under construction, prospective Australian crew members came to Bay City to train the ship and prepare it for commissioning. Some crew members came with their families, but due to a shortage of temporary housing, local residents came forward to provide housing for the US ally Down Under.

The vessel was launched on 5 May 1966 and was named by the wife of the Mayor of Brisbane, who thanked the builders for their excellent work. Many Australians came to the United States for the ceremony, which was witnessed by 5,000 people.

Nicknamed 'Iron Cat' by her crew, Brisbane was incorporated into the RAN on 16 December 1967.

After returning to her home waters, she completed sea trials, and in 1969 Brisbane was dispatched to Vietnam, where she served as an anti-aircraft carrier at Yankee Base in the Gulf of Tonkin. She participated in two major operations during the Vietnam War - "Sea Dragon" and "Market Time". Operation Sea Dragon was a series of naval operations aimed at locating and blocking sea routes for supplies from North Vietnam southward to South Vietnam. The Sea Dragon's goal is to intercept and destroy waterborne logistics vessels (WBLCs) - from large self-propelled barges to small sampans and sampans.

With some targets on land, Steelcat uses her 5" cannon to destroy land targets when needed.

Operation Market Time was another attempt by the U.S. Navy to prevent the flow of troops and supplies from North Vietnamese supply operations to South Vietnam by sea. Most Allied ships operated in coastal waters along the Cambodian border from southern and northern Vietnam to Da Nang. North Vietnamese trawlers built in China can carry tons of weapons and ammunition.

Without an identification flag, the ships would maneuver in the South China Sea and head towards the South Vietnamese coast at high speed under cover of darkness. Ships deployed at market hours - like the HMAS Brisbane - operated day and night in all weather conditions for more than eight years in an effort to reduce the delivery of war materiel to South Vietnam.

RAN also assists with natural disasters where possible. One such event occurred when Cyclone Tracy hit Australia and many ships were lost or submerged at sea. RAN patrols coastal waters in search of survivors. More than 22 people were reported dead at sea and 49 on land.

Darwin was also hit, and as part of Operation Navy Help Darwin, the Royal Navy sent 13 ships (including Brisbane) to deliver relief supplies to people - the largest humanitarian operation ever undertaken by the Royal Navy.

In 1991, Brisbane and the RAN backed an international coalition that sent troops to the 1991 Gulf War known as Desert Storm. Brisbane was refitted prior to deployment - adding two Vulcan Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) for close-in air defense, upgrading her communications system, adding chaff launchers, and radar absorbing panels . Australia's contribution to the 1991 Gulf War was purely naval in nature and was designed to support the multinational fleet's naval task forces in the Persian and Gulf of Oman as part of Operation Damascus.

Brisbane has also deployed three clearance divers to assist in locating and destroying mines threatening the bay. In addition, Brisbane sent a medical team to a US hospital ship to support coalition forces in the campaign.

Brisbane was awarded the Meritorious Unit Medal by the Australian Government for its conduct during the war.

Brisbane was decommissioned on 19 October 2001 and the Australian government decided to sink it off the coast of Queensland as a diving wreck. Before sinking, her bridge and one of her 5" (127 mm) guns were removed and placed at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to commemorate her important contribution to RAN history.

Brisbane sank on 31 July 2005 in 30 meters (98 feet) of water about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) offshore. Their funnel tips are only three meters below the water's surface at low tide.

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