Keel Laid for Australian Air Warfare Destroyer

A keel-laying ceremony was held February 3 for Australian Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) HMAS Brisban at Techport Australia, Adelaide. The vessel is the second of the Air Warfare Destroyer program.

At the ceremony, Australian Minister for Defense Senator David Johnston said, “This is an extremely complex program, as you can see with all of the workers here at ASC Techport. It is very labor intensive, with skills at the high end of industrial capacity.” According to Johnston, 2,850 jobs directly apply to the program.

Johnston called the newbuild part of “the transformation of the Royal Australian Navy to its next-generational capacity.”

“I’m not going to go on much further other than to say that the Royal Australian Navy with these AEGIS-equipped Air Warfare Destroyers will enter a new dimension, not in the tactical sense but the strategic sense,” Johnston said. “Some of you will understand the magnitude of what those words actually mean; these vessels will take us to a new generation, a new dimension, in Navy.”