The Royal Australian Navy has started retiring its veteran Armidale patrol boats, with the HMAS Maitland decommissioned after 16 years of service.
They’ll be replaced by a dozen much larger Arafura class offshore patrol vessels, which can remain at sea for longer periods and travel further, in the face of growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
“HMAS Maitland has steamed 435,054 nautical miles,” Lieutenant Commander Jeremy Evain, the vessel’s commanding officer, told a ceremony in Darwin.
“That’s the equivalent distance of a return trip to the moon.”
The ship and its crew were on the frontline during Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013, protecting Australia’s borders and intercepting people smugglers at sea.
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