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HMAS Advance, now a museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum
Class overview
Name	Attack class
Builders	Evans Deakin and Company Walkers Limited
Operators	Royal Australian Navy  Indonesian Navy  Papua New Guinea Maritime Element
Preceded by	Bathurst-class corvette
Succeeded by	Fremantle class
Cost	A$800,000
Completed	20
Lost	1
Retired	9
Preserved	2
General characteristics
Type	Patrol boat
Displacement	100 tons standard 146 tons full load
Length	107.5 ft (32.8 m)
Beam	20 ft (6.1 m)
Draught	7.3 ft (2.2 m) at full load
Propulsion	2 × 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines 2 shafts
Speed	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range	1,200 nmi (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	3 officers, 16 sailors
Armament	1 × 40 mm Bofors gun 2 × .50 calibre machine guns
Notes	Taken from:

The Attack-class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and operated between 1967 and at least 1991. Following their Australian service, twelve ships were transferred to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Construction

Twenty boats were ordered by the Department of Defence in November 1965 at a cost of around A$800,000 each from two Queensland shipyards, Evans Deakin in Brisbane and Walkers in Maryborough. Five were marked for the formation of a "New Guinea coastal security force", while the other fifteen were for patrols and general duties in Australian waters.

The first vessel was scheduled to be commissioned in August 1966, but she was not launched until March 1967.

The inclusion of the Attack class in the RAN fleet led to a smaller scaled down version of the Ships Crest ship's badge design to be created, as it was not deemed appropriate for such small vessels to use the full-size crest. The crest used by the patrol boats and other minor war vessels is scaled down from 755 by 620 millimetres (29.7 by 24.4 in) to 440 by 365 millimetres (17.3 by 14.4 in), with no other alterations to the design.

Operational history and fates

The Attack class was replaced in RAN service by the larger and more capable Fremantle-class patrol boats.

In 1975, Aitape, Ladava, Lae, Madang, and Samarai were transferred to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. All five were paid off during the late 1980s, with Aitape sunk as a dive wreck off Port Moresby in 1995.

Acute, Archer, Assail, Attack, Barbette, Bandolier, Barricade, and Bombard were transferred to the Indonesian Navy between 1974 and 1985, and are listed in Jane's Fighting Ships as still operational in 2011.

Arrow was destroyed in Darwin on 25 December 1974 during Cyclone Tracy.

Advance was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum in the late 1980s for preservation as a museum ship. Ardent was to be preserved as a memorial in Darwin, but was instead sold into civilian service in 2001 and converted into a pleasure craft. Aware was sold to a private owner during the 1990s, who modified her for use as a diving and salvage mothership, then was resold in to new owners in 2006. Bayonet was scuttled in Bass Strait in 1999 and has been successfully dived. Adroit paid off on 28 March 1992 and was sunk as a target by A-4 Skyhawk aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force west of Rottnest Island on 8 August 1994. The remainder of the class were broken up for scrap.

In fiction

Two Attack-class boats represented the fictional HMAS Ambush in the first series of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV series Patrol Boat.

List of ships

The 1998 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships reports that two vessels of a similar design, pennant numbers 860 and 861 (KRI Waigeo), were being operated by the Indonesian Navy. It speculates that these were locally built copies of the class.

References

Citations

1. ^ Blackman (ed.), Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69, p. 18
2. ^ Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 195
3. ^ Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, p. 261
4. Saunders, Stephen, ed. (2011). Jane's Fighting Ships 2011–2012. Coulsdon: IHS Jane's. p. . ISBN 9780710629593. OCLC 751789024.
5. Mitchell, Brett (23 February 2006). "Past meets future". Navy News. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
6. Andrews, Graeme (October 2007). "Yesterday's Navy: On the hardships ashore and hulks – part 2". Afloat. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
7. "Looking for a used "sub"?". Navy News. 10 August 1998. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
8. Cavander, Letea (16 April 2010). "Man told 'pay up or sink boat'". Bundaberg NewsMail. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
9. ^ Sharpe (ed.), Jane's Fighting Ships 1998–99, p. 317

Sources

• Blackman, Raymond, ed. (1968). Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69 (71st ed.). London: Jane's Publishing Company. OCLC 123786869.
• Cassells, Vic (2000). The Capital Ships: their battles and their badges. East Roseville, NSW: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7318-0941-6. OCLC 48761594.
• Frame, Tom (2004). No Pleasure Cruise: the story of the Royal Australian Navy. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-74114-233-4. OCLC 55980812.
• Godley, Peter J. (2005). "Twenty of the Best". Australian Warship (25). Sydney: Topmill.
• Sharpe, Richard, ed. (1998). Jane's Fighting Ships 1998–99 (101st ed.). Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane's Information Group. ISBN 071061795X. OCLC 39372676.

v t e Attack-class patrol boats
Royal Australian Navy	Acute Adroit Advance Archer Ardent Arrow Assail Attack Aware Bandolier Barbette Barricade Bombard Bayonet Buccaneer
Papua New Guinea Maritime Element (previously RAN New Guinea Division)	Aitape Ladava Lae Madang Samarai
Indonesian Navy	Sibarau (ex-Bandolier) Siliman (ex-Archer) Sigalu (ex-Barricade) Silea (ex-Acute) Siribua (ex-Bombard) Siada (ex-Barbette) Sikuda (ex-Attack) Sigurot (ex-Assail) Tenggiri (ex-Ardent)
List of ships of the Royal Australian Navy

v t e Indonesian Navy active ship classes
submarines	Cakra class Nagapasa class
frigates	Ahmad Yani class Martadinata class
corvettes	Fatahillah class Kapitan Pattimura class Diponegoro class Bung Tomo class Bung Karno class
fast attack crafts	Mandau class Clurit class Sampari class Klewang class
patrol boats	FPB 57 design (Nav I, Nav II, Nav III, Nav IV, Nav V) Sibarau class Pulau Rote class Badau class Pari class Dorang class Krait class Cucut class
minesweepers	Pulau Rengat class Pulau Rote class Pulau Fani class
landing platform dock	Makassar class
tank landing ships	Teluk Amboina Teluk Semangka class Teluk Gilimanuk class Teluk Bintuni class
landing craft utility	Kupang class
hospital ships	dr. Soeharso Sudirohusodo class
hydrographic survey vessels	Dewa Kembar Rigel class Polux
command ship	Multatuli
auxiliary ships	Talaud class Tanjung Kambani Karang Pilang class Arun Sungai Gerong Tarakan class
training ships	Dewaruci Bima Suci Arung Samudera Kadet class
S: single ship

• Attack-class patrol boats
• Patrol boat classes