HMAS ''Attack'' (P 90) was the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of the s used by the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN). Launched in April 1967 and commissioned in November that year, the ship was largely commercial in design and was used to protect fisheries in Australia's northern waters, and to support the survey ship . The vessel remained in RAN service until 1985 when it was transferred to the

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut, , Indonesian National Military-Naval Force, TNI-AL) is the naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol I ...

and renamed ''Sikuda''.

Design and construction

The ''Attack'' class was ordered in 1964 to operate in Australian waters as

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...

s based on lessons learned through using the s on patrols of Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and to replace a variety of old patrol, search-and-rescue, and general-purpose craft. Initially, nine were ordered for the RAN, with another five for

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

's Australian-run coastal security force, although another six ships were later ordered to bring the class to twenty vessels. The patrol boats had a displacement of 100 tons at standard load and 146 tons at full load, were in

length overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, had a beam of , and draughts of at standard load, and at full load.Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Ships Since 1946'', p. 86Blackman (ed.), ''Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69'', p. 18 The vessels' propulsion machinery consisted of two 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines, which supplied to the two propellers, producing a top speed of and a range of at . The ship's company consisted of three officers and sixteen sailors. Its main armament was a bow-mounted

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

gun, supplemented by two .50-calibre

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...

machine guns and various small arms. The ships were designed with as many commercial components as possible: the ''Attack''s were to operate in remote regions of Australia and New Guinea, and a town's hardware store would be more accessible than home base in a mechanical emergency.''The patrol boat'', Australian National Maritime Museum ''Attack'' was built by

Evans Deakin and Company Evans Deakin & Company was an Australian engineering company and shipbuilder. In 2019, the company was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in recognition of its major contributions to the Queensland economy for nearly a ce ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Queensland,Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Ships Since 1946'', p. 87 launched on 8 April 1967 and commissioned on 17 November 1967. Although it was the lead ship of the class, ''Attack'' was the second ship commissioned into the RAN, four days behind .

Operational history

Following its commission, ''Attack'' served in the RAN for 17 years, during which time it was employed mainly in the waters to Australia's north, protecting fisheries. It was also used to support survey work conducted by .Gillett & Graham, ''Warships of Australia'', pp. 227–228. ''Attack'' paid off on 21 February 1985. She was transferred to the

on 24 May 1985 and renamed ''Sikuda''.Prézelin and Baker, ''The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990/1991'', p. 250

Citations

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Attack Attack-class patrol boats 1967 ships