HMAS Launceston (FCPB 207), named for the city of Launceston, Tasmania

Launceston, Tasmania

Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...

, was a Fremantle class patrol boat

Fremantle class patrol boat

The Fremantle-class patrol boats were coastal patrol vessels operated by the Royal Australian Navy from 1979 to 2007. Designed by British shipbuilder Brooke Marine and constructed in Australia by North Queensland Engineers and Agents, the Fremantle class were larger, more powerful, and more...

 of the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN).

Design and construction

Starting in the late 1960s, planning began for a new class of patrol boat to replace the Attack class

Attack class patrol boat

The Attack class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy and operated between 1967 and 1985...

, with designs calling for improved seakeeping

Seakeeping

Seakeeping ability is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea states....

 capability, and updated weapons and equipment. The Fremantles had a full load displacement of 220 tonnes (216.5 LT), were 137.6 feet (41.9 m) long overall, had a beam of 24.25 feet (7.4 m), and a maximum draught of 5.75 feet (1.8 m). Main propulsion machinery consisted of two MTU series 538 diesel engines, which supplied 3200 shp to the two propeller shafts. Exhaust was not expelled through a funnel, like most ships, but through vents below the waterline. The patrol boat could reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (16.3 m/s), and had a maximum range of 5000 nautical miles (9,260 km) at 5 knots (2.7 m/s). The ship's company consisted of 22 personnel. Each patrol boat was armed with a single 40 mm Bofors gun as main armament, supplemented by two .50 cal Browning machineguns and an 81-mm mortar, although the mortar was removed from all ships sometime after 1988. The main weapon was originally to be two 30-mm guns on a twin-mount, but the reconditioned Bofors were selected to keep costs down; provision was made to install an updated weapon later in the class' service life, but this did not eventuate.

Launceston was laid down by North Queensland Engineers and Agents at Cairns, Queensland

Cairns, Queensland

Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...

 on 29 March 1980. She was launched on 23 January 1981, and commissioned into the RAN on 6 March 1982.

Fate

Launceston was decommissioned in Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

on 8 September 2006.