Austal Australia has handed over the tenth and final Evolved Cape-class patrol boat ordered by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
ADV Cape Hawke has 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 (ABF).
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 have also retained the baseline Cape-class boats' standard armament of two pintle-mounted 12.7mm machine guns.
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 ABF are under construction at Austal's Western Australia facilities.
Editor's note: Cape Hawke previously carried the "HMAS" prefix, thus denoting that she will be commissioned as a RAN warship upon entering service. However, more recent publications from the Australian Defence Force and Austal indicated that she has been assigned the ADV – Australian Defence Vessel – prefix, similar to some of her Evolved Cape-class sisters.
