Final Hobart-class destroyer to be delivered to RAN in February 2020

The third and final Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) on order for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is set to be handed over to the service in February 2020 after recently completing sea trials.

Sydney , the third and final Hobart-class AWD on order for the RAN is set to be handed over to the service in February 2020 after recently completing sea trials. (Commonwealth of Australia)

Ahead of the warship’s provisional acceptance into service, final production work, including the integration with the embarked Sikorsky MH-60-R naval helicopter, is set to be completed, said the Department of Defence (DoD) in Canberra in a 9 November statement.

Named Sydney (V) (with pennant number 42), the 146.7 m-long AWD was launched in May 2018 at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide.

The announcement of Sydney 's completion of sea trials came exactly two weeks after the RAN decommissioned its last operational Adelaide-class (US Oliver Hazard Perry design) guided-missile frigate.

The RAN is replacing the Adelaide class with the three Hobart-class AWDs, the first of which – HMAS Hobart (III) – entered service in September 2017, while the second of these 7,000-tonne ships, HMAS Brisbane (III), was commissioned in October 2018.

Based on Navantia’s F-100 Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate design (with several Australian-specific modifications), the Hobart-class destroyers deploy the Aegis combat system incorporating the AN/SPY-1D(V) phased array radar.

Among other things, each of the ships is also equipped with the 48-cell MK 41 vertical launch system (VLS) that can accommodate Standard Missile-2 medium-range Block IIIA (SM-2MR Block IIIA) and SM-2MR Block IIIB long-range surface-to-air missiles, as well as medium-range RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles Block I.