Royal Australian Navy names future auxiliary oilers

The Royal Australian Navy has named its future replenishment ships, Supply and Stalwart.

Defence Minister Marise Payne said the ships, which will be built at Spain’s Navantia shipyard, will be known as auxiliary oiler replenishment vessels. They will replace the current HMA ships Success and Sirius.

Supply will be the second vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to bear the name that has its origins with the armed tender ship that accompanied the First Fleet to Australia in 1788.

Stalwart is named after a destroyer that served between 1920 and 1925 and the second destroyer tender that served from 1968 to 1990.

“In considering names for classes and ships, the navy chose names with deep historical roots or names that are uniquely Australian,” Minister Payne said.

“For these ships, we have been able to achieve both. Supply was instrumental in establishing the British colony and Stalwart, like the Australian Navy itself, has its origins in the Royal Navy and subsequently two Australian ships.

The Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, will place a coin in the ship at the keel laying at the Navantia shipyard at Ferrol.

Navantia held a steel-cutting ceremony in June to officially start construction.

Success will enter service in 2020, while Supply will be built in two years, with full operational capability scheduled for 2022.