In October 2010 the Royal Australian Navy Anzac -class frigate HMAS Perth completed a big step toward an important modernization. She was fitted with a new, uniquely shaped radar mast hosting the Ceafar and Ceamount radar systems that will make it possible for the vessel to engage significant numbers of advanced antiship missiles. The new systems also will form part of the improved 9LV Mk3E combat suite being upgraded and tested on the warship in the months ahead. The Perth had been undergoing the mast installation at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson, Western Australia, since January 2010. If subsequent tests prove successful, all Australian members of the Anzac class are to be similarly upgraded during the next decade. The Perth and her seven Australian sister-ships entered service between 1996 and 2006, with the Perth , the youngest of the class, commissioned on 26 August 2006. The Anzac -class frigates are armed with the Mk 41 vertical-launch system, which makes them capable of carrying Sea Sparrow or Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles. The ships also are fitted with a 5-inch gun and torpedo tubes, and have the ability to carry a Harpoon antiship missile and a single helicopter.
