Western Australian shipbuilder Austal Ships is looking increasingly towards military and paramilitary applications of its existing designs, and applying its well-proved high speed lightweight shipbuilding technology to more traditional applications in these markets. The yard has joined forces with provider of naval logistical and technical support Defence Maritime Services (DMS) to tender for the Royal Australian Navy's new Armidale class patrol boats. Austal says that its proposal offers substantial cost savings compared with current procurement budgets and support costs, resulting in significantly lower total life-cycle expenditure. Recognising that both steel and aluminium have potential benefits in patrol boat construction, Austal produced monohull designs in both materials and compared their relative merits in detail. These studies showed that the two designs have approximately equal build costs, however the aluminium variant uses 21 % less fuel and offers lower maintenance costs.
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