HMAS Toowoomba

Not to be confused with HMAS Toowoomba (J157)

## HMAS Toowoomba (FFH 156)

HMAS Toowoomba

**HMAS *Toowoomba* (FFH 156)** is the seventh *Anzac*-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was laid down in 2002 by Tenix Defence and commissioned in 2005.

In 2007, *Toowoomba* was deployed to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Slipper. Her second deployment to the Middle East occurred during the second half of 2009. As part of this, she became the first RAN vessel to operate with the counter-piracy Combined Task Force 151.

### Operational History

*Toowoomba* began her first deployment to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) as part of Operation Slipper on 4 January 2007.

On 18 June 2008, the frigate became the first RAN warship to fire an MU90 Impact anti-submarine torpedo, after they replaced the American Mark 46 anti-submarine torpedoes originally fitted.

In June 2009, *Toowoomba* sailed from Fleet Base West, Western Australia to embark upon the ship's second MEAO deployment. In September, the frigate was assigned to Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151); *Toowoomba* was the first Australian warship to work with CTF-151, a US-led, multinational force tasked with protecting merchant vessels from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. *Toowoomba* was assigned to escort merchant shipping and conduct overt patrols in the International Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC), a shipping lane extending the Gulf of Aden towards the Somali Basin and the Horn of Africa, in support of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1846 and 1851. The frigate also operated with the counter-terrorism Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) in the Arabian Sea.

On 20 September 2009, *Toowoomba* responded to a call for assistance from the merchant vessel *BBC Portugal*, and successfully prevented an act of high-seas piracy. A Japanese P-3 Orion aircraft and a naval helicopter from the German frigate *Bremen* provided surveillance support while *Toowoomba* closed in. A boarding party from *Toowoomba* confiscated several weapons from the attackers, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, six AK-47 assault rifles, and a G3 assault rifle, before the skiff was directed to leave the IRTC.

*Toowoomba* returned to Fleet Base West on 7 December 2009, having been relieved in the MEAO by HMAS *Stuart*. The ship and her company were awarded with a "Certificate for Exceptional Services Rendered to Shipping and Mankind" by the International Maritime Organization in November 2009. The deployment is the subject of *Australian Pirate Patrol*, a four-episode documentary series produced by Prospero Productions, and first aired on the National Geographic Channel on 18 October 2010.

In early April 2013, *Toowoomba* operated with the U.S. Navy's Carrier Strike Group Three in the South China Sea.

In late March 2014, *Toowoomba* was pulled from asylum seeker patrols and directed to join the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, allowing HMAS *Success* to return to port for replenishment.

*Toowoomba* will be docked in October 2015 to undergo the Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade. The upgrade will include the fitting of CEA Technologies' CEAFAR and CEAMOUNT phased array radars on new masts, a Vampir NG Infrared Search and Track system, and Sharpeye Navigational Radar Systems, along with improvements to the operations room equipment and layout.

In early 2020 she was deployed to the Strait of Hormuz during the 2019 Persian Gulf crisis.

In November 2023 *Toowoomba* operated off Japan as part of Operation Argos, which is Australia's contribution to efforts to enforce sanctions against North Korea. Several RAN divers were slightly injured by sonar from a Chinese warship during this deployment, when the sonar was activated close to the Australian frigate while they were removing a fishing net from its propellers.