Minehunters flex muscles during exercise

HMA Ships Gascoyne and Diamantina flexed their mine-hunting muscles recently during the first phase of their Fleet Certification Period in Jervis Bay.

CAPTION: HMAS Gascoyne in Jervis Bay to conduct mine-hunting exercises as part its Fleet Certification Period.

The Huon-class minehunters have been conducting mine-hunting and laying exercises, as well as putting their crews through their paces in engineering, damage control and ship handling exercises.

Hosted annually, Fleet Certification Period is a chance for RAN ships to participate in war games to certify them for deployment.

Sub Lieutenant Stephen Joyce, who was recently awarded his platform endorsement on board Gascoyne, said the training had been invaluable.

“Mine hunting is arguably more relevant now than it ever has been and learning how we detect and neutralise this threat has been eye opening,” Sub Lieutenant Joyce said.

Gascoyne and Diamantina will deploy to northern Tasmania for phase two of the Fleet Certification Period, where they will be tasked with low-target strength mines in some of Australia’s most difficult mine hunting conditions.

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