Australia — HMAS Parramatta returns home

The Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy Frigate, HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta returned to her home­port of Gar­den Island, Syd­ney this morn­ing.

HMAS PARRAMATTA comes along side at Gar­den Island, Syd­ney after a deploy­ment to the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tion. Source: Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence Click to enlarge

The Anzac Class Frigate, car­ry­ing 192 men and women, has returned from a six-month deploy­ment to the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tions, where she con­tributed to the inter­na­tion­al cam­paign against ter­ror­ism, coun­ter­ing pira­cy in the Gulf of Aden, and mar­itime secu­ri­ty. The ship was wel­comed home by the Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel the Hon. Jason Clare MP, the Com­man­der Aus­tralian Fleet, Rear Admi­ral Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN and many fam­i­ly and friends. Par­ra­mat­ta has made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the safe­ty of ves­sels in mar­itime cor­ri­dors dur­ing her deploy­ment as part of Oper­a­tion SLIPPER. Par­ra­mat­ta suc­cess­ful­ly respond­ed to 14 dis­tress calls in rela­tion to sus­pect­ed pira­cy events and suc­cess­ful­ly inter­cept­ed one pirate ves­sel in the Inter­na­tion­al­ly Rec­om­mend­ed Tran­sit Cor­ri­dor. Parramatta’s deploy­ment rep­re­sent­ed a change in focus to the South­ern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to a height­ened threat posed by vio­lent extrem­ists oper­at­ing in the region. Rear Admi­ral Stephen Gilmore con­grat­u­lat­ed the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of Par­ra­mat­ta, Com­man­der Heath Robert­son, on the suc­cess­ful deploy­ment of his Ship’s Com­pa­ny. Com­man­der Heath Robert­son said the Ship’s Com­pa­ny was proud of their accom­plish­ments but were pleased to be home. “The men and women of Par­ra­mat­ta have per­formed excep­tion­al­ly well dur­ing what was a long and dynam­ic deploy­ment and I’m very proud of what they’ve achieved. It is great to be back in Syd­ney today with our fam­i­ly and friends,” said Com­man­der Heath Robert­son. “I con­grat­u­late the Ship’s Com­pa­ny for their ded­i­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al­ism and thank the fam­i­ly and friends of those who serve for their tire­less sup­port and love.” This is the third time that Par­ra­mat­ta has deployed to the Gulf, with the frigate’s return mark­ing the com­ple­tion of Navy’s twen­ty-third rota­tion since Sep­tem­ber 2001. Par­ra­mat­ta has been replaced by HMAS Mel­bourne, which left Gar­den Island, Syd­ney in August. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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