5883. Commissioned on July 21, 1984, the 4200 tonne Improved Oliver Hazard Perry/Adelaide Class frigate – along with her sister ship HMAS SYDNEY [IV] – served a record five deployments in the Persian Gulf between 1990 and 2004. Sailing from Sydney on Aug. 13, 1990 she and HMAS ADELAIDE [II] were the first RAN ships deployed to the Gulf. DARWIN was also involved in East Timor INTERFET operations in 1999, and during the Solomon Islands crisis in 2001.
Like all her RAN Class, DARWIN was lengthened to 138.1m overall to take larger helicopters on the flight decks. Since their major overhaul from the 1990s , the four remaining RAN ships of the class now mount a formidable armament of a single 76mm rapid fire gun, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, SM2 surface to air missiles, Evolved Sea Sparrow surface to air missiles, the Phalanx close-in weapons system and two Mk32 triple torpedo tube mountings firing Mk46 torpedos, along with the Pirate, Seagnat and Lescut missile decoy systems. She carries two S70B Seahawk helicopters.
DARWIN was the first ship named after the Northern Territory capital and port . We think this fine RAN ships portrait was taken when DARWIN emerged from her own upgrade around Oct. 2008. We don’t have the photographer’s name, but it appeared on the authoritative World Naval Ships Forums website, uploaded by Chief Moderator Terry Dickens [Astraltrader] on behalf of another member. Terry has been kind enoiugh to share many images from his own extensive collection with this Photostream.
The photo appeared on a WNSF thread, actually initiated by the Kookaburra, here:
www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4287&…
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