Austal has developed a new Offshore Patrol 60 concept design that was displayed for the first time at the Indo-Pacific 2022 exhibition in Sydney.
Matt Klingberg, Capture Team Leader at Austal told AMR that the vessel is an evolution of its earlier work on the Evolved Cape-class Patrol Ships and can host a significant number of capabilities almost equivalent to a larger Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) at a competitive price.
The Offshore Patrol 60 concept is for a 60m-long multi-mission ship that can be easily reconfigured for different roles that can include patrol and border protection, surveillance, mine countermeasures, hydrographic and research, special forces operations and policing. With a beam of 10.6 metres and draft of 3m the craft can host either two engines for a top speed of 23.5 knots or three engines for 26kt offering a range of 2,500 nautical miles at 12kt.
Austal is offering the Offshore Patrol 60 concept in three variants. The maritime security variant can be equipped with a main gun of up to 30-40mm calibre, water cannon, two 12.7mm machine guns forward, drone countermeasure systems and a decoy launching system. It can also host a stern-launched RHIB, Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial system (UAS) and anti-air self defence missile system and two 30mm remote weapon stations positioned aft.
A surveillance variant would include an air and surface surveillance radar, communications electronic support measures system, a launch and recovery system for a long endurance fixed-wing UAS and a davit for the launch and recovery of surface craft alongside.
The subsurface variant includes a towed arrange sonar operate from a container on the stern deck, a hull mounted mine avoidance sonar and unmanned underwater vehicles for mine detection and disposal.
All variants are capable for launching and recovering two 7.3m Gemini boats with the weapons and sensor systems controlled from a four station Combat Information Centre.
by Tim Fish
