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 that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of the s used by the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

(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 (, TNI-AL) is the Navy, naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol Indonesia's lengthy coastline, to enforce and patrol the territorial waters and Exclus ...

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 ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

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, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

'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 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, and is also ...

, 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 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 near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chambered ...

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 at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, 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 Patrol vessels of the Indonesian Navy 1st Fleet Patrol Ship Force