The ''Attack''-class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for 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) 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 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 ...

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 Naval heraldry is a form of identification used by naval vessels from the end of the 19th century onwards, after distinguishing features such as figureheads and gilding were discouraged or banned by several navies. Naval heraldry commonly takes t ...

design to be created, as it was not deemed appropriate for such small vessels to use the full-size crest.Cassells, ''The Capital Ships'', p. 195 The crest used by the patrol boats and other minor war vessels is scaled down from to , 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 s. In 1975, ''Aitape'', ''Ladava'', '' Lae'', ''Madang'', and ''Samarai'' were transferred to the

Papua New Guinea Defence Force The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into be ...

.Frame, ''No Pleasure Cruise'', p. 261 All five were

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...

during the late 1980s, with ''Aitape'' sunk as a

dive wreck Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artifici ...

off

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

in 1995. ''Acute'', ''Archer'', ''Assail'', ''Attack'', ''Barbette'', ''Bandolier'', ''Barricade'', and ''Bombard'' were 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 In ...

between 1974 and 1985, and are listed in ''

Jane's Fighting Ships ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' by Janes Information Services is an annual reference book of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ships' names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc. Ea ...

'' as still operational in 2011. was destroyed in

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

on 25 December 1974 during

Cyclone Tracy Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned t ...

. ''Advance'' was donated to the

Australian National Maritime Museum The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a national maritime museum wou ...

in the late 1980s for preservation as a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small num ...

. ''Ardent'' was to be preserved as a memorial in

, 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 Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct wat ...

in 1999 and has been successfully dived. ''Adroit'' paid off on 28 March 1992 and was sunk as a target by

A-4 Skyhawk The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed ...

aircraft of the

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeal ...

west of

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class ...

on 8 August 1994. The remainder of the class were

broken up Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction ...

for scrap.

In fiction

Two ''Attack''-class boats represented the fictional HMAS ''Ambush'' in the first series of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

TV series ''

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 th ...

''.

List of ships

The 1998 edition of ''

'' reports that two vessels of a similar design, pennant numbers 860 and 861 (KRI ''Waigeo''), were being operated by the Indonesian Navy.Sharpe (ed.), ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1998–99'', p. 317 It speculates that these were locally built copies of the class.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{Indonesian Navy active ship classes Patrol boat classes