The Attack class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy and operated between 1967 and 1985. Many were eventually donated to the defence forces of Pacific nations.
Twenty boats were ordered by the Department of Defence in 1965 at a cost of around $AUD 800,000 each from two Queensland shipyards, Evans Deakin in Brisbane and Walkers in Maryborough.
The Attack class was replaced in RAN service by the larger and more capable Freemantle class patrol boats.
Two Attack class boats represented the fictional HMAS Defiance in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV series Patrol Boat.
The boats of this class were (in order of commissioning):
HMAS Advance is a (fully operational) museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. HMAS Ardent is preserved as a memorial in Darwin, where HMAS Arrow was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. HMAS Aitape was sunk as a dive wreck off Port Moresby in 1995. HMAS Bayonet was scuttled in Bass Strait in 1999 and has been successfully dived.
Specifications
- length: 32.6 m
- beam: 6.1 m
- displacement (loaded): 146 tonnes
- powerplant: 2x 16 cylinder turbo-charged diesel engines developing 3,460 hp and driving twin propellers
- max speed: 24 kts
- armament: 1 x 40mm gun, 1 x 81mm mortar, 2 x .50 machine guns. Mines and depth charges could also be carried
- crew: 19
