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HMAS Melbourne and the USS Okinawa USMC amphibious support vessel cruise together during exercise K81. The Iwo Jima class is being considered by the RAN as a replacement for HMAS Melbourne. USMC Iwo Jima class operate a number of assault helos such as the Boeing Vertrol H-46 Sea Knight, Sikorsky CH-53A Sea Stallion, Bell AH-17 SeaCobra gunship and British Aerospace AV-8A VTOL ground support aircraft. The eventual RAN inventory would most probably include EH-101 ASW helo and Harrier II in the air defence and ground support/anti-ship role.
The Carrier vs The Submarine
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The idea that the Royal Australian Navy should abandon the aircraft carrier in favour of a major expansion of its submarine force places the service squarely at the crossroads. Procurement action over the next few years will determine the form of the RAN, not only for the 1980s but quite possibly well into the next century.
The links between the RAN and fixed-wing aircraft may be traced back as far as 1917, when Britain’s Royal Naval Air Service operated Sopwith Pups from HMAS Sydney, Australia and Brisbane. In that same year, the Australian Naval Board tried unsuccessfully to obtain from Britain the loan of a dedicated aircraft carrier. In view of the current debate over the role of the carrier, it is relevant to note that the motivation for the request was the threat of Germany’s two raiders operating in the Pacific: the Wolf and the Seeadler, the former vessel equipped with a Friedrichshafen FF33E reconnaissance seaplane, designated Wolfchen (wolf cub).
The RAN’s postwar plans for seaborne aviation suffered a blow in 1920 when the Commonwealth decided to establish an autonomous Air Force, to be responsible for air support of both the Army and the Navy. However, in June 1925 the formation of an RAN Fleet Air Arm was announced (the order being revoked by Cabinet in January 1928), and in the same month, the Government decided to purchase a seaplane carrier. This was to form part of an RAN expansion to counter the carriers being introduced into the Pacific by the Japanese Imperial Navy and to offset the British decision to terminate spending on the Singapore naval base, but the timing of the contract was probably accelerated by the urgent need to find work (one million pounds-worth) for the Cockatoo Island Dockyard.
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