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By A. D. Baker, III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
Rarely seen simultaneously, the Royal Australian Navy’s three Michigan-built Charles F. Adams (DDG-2)-class guided-missile destroyers—the Perth (D-38), the Hobart (D-39), and the Brisbane (D-41)— steam together in April 1992. Normally one of the ships is in overhaul. All three of the mid-1960s-vin- tage ships recently underwent midlife modernizations to extend their service into the next century—unlike their U.S. Navy sisters, the last of which will be retired shortly.
All three have the Ikara antisubmarine missile system removed and only the Hobart has Mk-15 close-in weapon system mounts flanking the after stack; the other two have been altered to accept the weapons, which are cross-decked to deploying units. Ikara, a winged drone that dropped a homing torpedo, has been retired from Royal Australian Navy service.
submarine tender Proteus (AS-19) displayed World War II-style camouflage during ceremonies at Sydney, Australia. With her were the carrier Independence (CV-62), the command ship Blue Ridge (LCC-19), the guided-missile cruiser Mobile Bay (CG-53), the destroyer Fletcher (DD-991), the guided-missile frigate Reuben James (FFG-57) and the frigate Ouellet (FF-1077). Now displacing 20,295 tons full load, the Proteus was lengthened 44 feet during a 1959-60 conversion to become the first Polaris missile submarine tender. Initially deployed to Holy Loch, Scotland, she spent most of her later career at Guam and is due to be retired at the end of Fiscal Year 1992. The inset pictures the ship in March 1944, six weeks after commissioning.
The 28 January 1992 Izvestiya depicted the midget submarines MS-520 and MS-521 and described them as displacing 219 tons submerged, being 28 meters long, capable of diving to 200 meters, with a range of 540 miles on the surface, and an endurance of ten days. The point of the article was that—since the first of the pair of Project-865 midgets was not completed until December 1988, and the craft are the first of their type built since World War II—the Baltic Fleet could not be the source of reported submarine incursions into Swedish waters over
at Liepaja during their combined 170 trips to sea. They are reported destined to be laid up, awaiting funds to correct their deficiencies.
Proceedings / July 199t