HMAS Success was a Durance-class multi-product replenishment oiler that previously served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s, she is the only ship of the class to be constructed outside France, and the only one to not originally serve in the Marine Nationale. The ship was part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War, and was deployed to East Timor in response to incidents in 1999 and 2006. The ship was fitted with a double hull during the first half of 2011, to meet International Maritime Organization standards.
HMAS Supply was a Tide-class replenishment oiler of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Originally named Tide Austral and intended to be the first ship of a post-World War II Royal Australian Fleet Auxiliary, manpower and financial shortages meant that when the Belfast-built ship was launched in 1955, she could not be accepted into Australian service. Instead, she was loaned to the RFA, operating RFA Tide Austral (A99). In August 1962, the ship was commissioned directly into the RAN, then renamed a month later to HMAS Supply. Supply operated as part of the RAN until her decommissioning at the end of 1985.
Navantia is a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company that builds vessels for military and civil sectors. It was established in 2005 following the segregation of the military assets of the IZAR Group. The company designs, builds, and supports various types of surface vessels, submarines, and systems. Navantia is the fifth-largest shipbuilder in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world. The company is also expanding into markets such as renewable energy, the offshore industry, and naval services.
The Durance class is a series of multi-product replenishment oilers, originally designed and built for service in the French Navy. Besides the five ships built for the French Navy, a sixth was built for the Royal Australian Navy, while the lead ship of the class currently serves with the Argentine Navy. Two ships of a similar but smaller design are in service with the Royal Saudi Navy as the Boraida-class replenishment oilers.
A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers.
A joint support ship (JSS) is a multi-role naval vessel capable of launching and supporting joint amphibious and airlift operations. It can also provide command and control, sealift and seabasing, underway replenishment, disaster relief and logistics capabilities for combined land and sea operations.
The Royal Australian Navy, although a significant force in the Asia-Pacific region, is nonetheless classed as a medium-sized navy. Its fleet is based around two main types of surface combatant, with limited global deployment and air power capability. However, in 2009, a white paper, Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, was produced by the Australian government which set out a programme of defence spending that will see significant improvements to the RAN's fleet and capabilities. In recent times, Australia released its Surface Fleet Review in 2024, which analyses the future of the RAN and shows what the Government will procure.
The Canberra class is a ship class of two landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning to upgrade the navy's amphibious fleet began in 2000, based on Australian experiences leading the International Force for East Timor peacekeeping operation. With a new climate for growing Australian Navy spending, a desire existed for forward defence capability for landing and supporting troops on Asian territory, that had never existed in Australian history, even with the old Majestic-class light fleet carriers, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney in the 1970s. In 2004, French company Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) and Spanish company Navantia were invited to tender proposals, with DCN offering the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship and Navantia proposing the "Buque de Proyección Estratégica" design. The Spanish design was selected in 2007, with Navantia responsible for construction of the ships from the keel to the flight deck, and BAE Systems Australia handling the fabrication of the combat and communications systems. Finally, Siemens (Germany) supplied and fitted the azimuth thrusters.
HMAS Westralia was a modified Leaf-class replenishment oiler which served with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1989 to 2006. Formerly RFA Appleleaf (A79), she served in with the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) from 1975 to 1989. The ship was initially leased to the RAN, then purchased outright in 1994. In 1998, a fire onboard resulted in the deaths of four sailors. Westralia was decommissioned in 2006, and the ship was sold into civilian service for use as a Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel, under the name Shiraz. However, the ship was laid up in Indonesia until late 2009, when she was sold to a Turkish ship breaking company. Arriving in January 2010, the vessel was scrapped.
Fleet Base East is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) major fleet base that comprises several naval establishments and facilities clustered around Sydney Harbour, centred on HMAS Kuttabul. Fleet Base East extends beyond the borders of Kuttabul and includes the commercially-operated dockyard at Garden Island, and adjacent wharf facilities at nearby Woolloomooloo, east of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. Fleet Base East is one of two major facilities of the RAN, the other facility being Fleet Base West. The fleet operates in the Pacific Ocean.
HMAS Sirius was a commercial tanker purchased by the Royal Australian Navy and converted into a fleet replenishment vessel to replace HMAS Westralia. She was named in honour of HMS Sirius of the First Fleet. Launched in South Korea on 2004, and converted in Western Australia, Sirius was commissioned in 2006; three years before a purpose-built vessel would have been built, and at half the cost. The tanker was decommissioned in 2021 and subsequently scrapped.
The Tide class was a series of six replenishment oilers used by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), the naval auxiliary fleet of the United Kingdom, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the Chilean Navy.
The Tide-class tanker (formerly the Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability (MARS) project) is a class of four fast fleet tankers that entered service with the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary from 2017. The 37,000 t ships provide fuel, food, fresh water, ammunition and other supplies to Royal Navy vessels around the world. Norway ordered a similar 26,000 t version with a 48-bed hospital and greater solid stores capacity, but reduced liquid capacity; it was delivered in November 2018 as HNoMS Maud two years after originally planned. The two classes are very similar but are not directly comparable due to large variance in capabilities delivered.
Cantabria (A15) is a replenishment oiler operated by the Spanish Navy. Acquired to provide logistical support for the Spanish fleet, Cantabria was commissioned in 2010. Cantabria is the second-largest naval ship currently operated by the Spanish, behind Juan Carlos I.
MV Asterix is a Canadian commercial container ship. It was purchased by Federal Fleet Services as part of Project Resolve, and was later converted into a supply ship for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). She is intended to act as an interim replacement between the out of service Protecteur-class replenishment oiler and the future Protecteur-class auxiliary vessel. Originally launched in Germany in 2010 as Cynthia, the ship was converted and delivered to the RCN in December 2017 when she will be leased to the navy with a merchant navy crew, complemented by RCN personnel. Asterix will be in Canadian service well into the 2020s.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Supply. Named for HMAT Supply armed tender that was part of First Fleet.
HMNZS Aotearoa, formerly the Maritime Sustainment Capability project, is an auxiliary ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Builder Hyundai Heavy Industries delivered the ship to the Navy in June 2020, and she was commissioned into service on 29 July 2020. Full operational capability was expected to be achieved in 2021. The vessel will serve as a replenishment oiler, and has replaced HMNZS Endeavour, the Navy’s last fleet oiler, which was decommissioned in December 2017.
HMAS Supply (A195), named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Supply, is the lead ship of the Supply-class replenishment oilers built for the Royal Australian Navy by Navantia at their yard in Ferrol, Spain. The Australian Supply-class ships are based on the Spanish Navy's replenishment oiler Cantabria. The vessel was launched on 18 November 2017 and commissioned on 10 April 2021. It was confirmed in Senate estimates on 6 June 2024 that Supply is under repair in Western Australia.
HMAS Stalwart is the second of the Navantia built Supply-class replenishment oiler for the Royal Australian Navy. It had its keel laid in November 2018 as a part of the SEA 1654 Phase 3 project. HMAS Stalwart (III) and her sister ship HMAS Supply (II) replace HMAS Success and HMAS Sirius with a single class of two auxiliary oiler replenisher (AOR) ships to sustain deployed maritime forces.
INS Shivalik undergoing replenishment from Stalwart during a Malabar exercise.
Royal Australian Navy 
