The Libyan Navy's amphibious landing ship Ibn Harissa is seen undergoing a refit at Croatia's Kraljevica Shipyard during 2001. The yard, which previously had repaired Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's yacht, is reported to have been acquired from the Croatian government by Libyan financial interests. Whether the 2,800-ton, 328-foot Ibn Harissa is to return to naval service or is destined for commercial operation as a vehicle cargo ship is not yet certain; her sister ship, the Ibn Ouf, has operated for the Libyan government-controlled General National Maritime Transportation Company since March 1999. With the lifting of most of the embargoes against supplying Libya with military equipment, its navy has been able to refurbish seven of the remaining nine French-built La Combattante-II-class guided-missile patrol boats. Three of those 311-ton, 39knot craft—the Shehab, Shefak, and Laheeb—visited Malta last fall.
Seen nearing completion this January at Damen Shipyard, Gorinchen, the Netherlands, the patrol boats Aldhahran (in the foreground) and Assir are two of six of the builder's Stan Patrol 2606 design on order for Saudi Arabia. The 85-foot-long craft are able to achieve 30 knots. Damen, which supplied the design for the U.S. Coast Guard's current 87-foot patrol cutter program, long has been a highly successful supplier of commercial workboats and military patrol and support craft, with many of the latter going to Mideastern customers, including Iran. The company also has yards in Poland and Romania, and with its purchase of the financially troubled Royal Scheid yard at Vlissingen on 30 May 2000 for a single guilder, it is now a major naval shipbuilder. Damen's Schelde Shipbuilding yard holds the contracts for the new Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provincien-class guided-missile frigates and was expected to receive the order this month for the 16,000-ton, 584-foot dock landing ship Johan de Witt, an enlarged version of the Rotterdam-class, which also has been built in Spain. Four units of a different variant of the Rotterdam design are on order for Britain's Royal Navy as the Largs Bay class, and much the same design is under consideration by the Belgian and German navies.
The last U.S.-built Royal Australian Navy (RAN) guided-missile destroyer of the Charles F Adams (DDG-2) class, the Brisbane (ex-U.S. DDG-27) was retired on 19 October 2001. One of a trio built by Defoe Shipbuilding at Bay City, Michigan, during the 1960s, the 4,720ton Brisbane is seen here at sea early in September 2001. Sister ship Perth (exDDG-25) was retired on 15 October 1999, and the Hobart (ex-DDG-26) left service on 12 May 2000. To replace the fleet air-defense capabilities represented by the class, the RAN, which will not be able to acquire replacement ships for a decade or longer, is considering equipping its half-dozen Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7)class guided-missile frigates with the Standard SM-2 missile—a concept rejected for their U.S. Navy sisters in the mid-1980s on both cost and weight grounds. The RAN's Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates already are undergoing a 2001-2005 upgrade program, with, among other improvements, eight Mk 41 vertical launch system cells being added forward of the existing Mk 13 missile launcher. The ships are intended to carry 32 Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles in Quad Packs. Germany still operates two Charles F. Adams-class destroyers and Greece four, although two of the latter's quartet are retiring this year and the German ships will be discarded in 2003-2004.