Austal Australia has launched the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) 10th Evolved Cape-class patrol boat at its Henderson facilities in Western Australia.
Upon completion, the future HMAS Cape Hawke will have an LOA of 57.8 metres, a beam of 10.3 metres, a draught of approximately three metres, and accommodation for 32 crewmembers and other personnel.
Austal said the Evolved Capes were built with a number of enhancements over the baseline Cape-class patrol boats, improving operational capability and crew capacity compared to the vessels already operated by the navy and Australian Border Force.
Like their baseline Cape-class sisters, the Evolved Cape-class boats were built for sustained operations lasting a maximum of 28 days or covering a range of 4,000 nautical miles in conditions up to Sea State four. They will also retain the baseline Cape-class boats' standard armament of two pintle-mounted 12.7mm machine guns.
The future Cape Hawke is also the last Evolved Cape-class boat to be built for the RAN, though two more Evolved Cape-class boats slated for the Australian Border Force are under construction at Austal's Western Australia facilities.
