Australia - Navy techical sailors lured by mine cash

A Shortage of technical sailors, blamed on the resources boom, has forced the navy to tie up two frontline warships indefinitely while its remaining 10 frigates lost 459 days in just six months this year due to "unscheduled" repairs and maintenance.

The navy describes the temporary withdrawal from service of the WA-based frigate HMAS Arunta and the Sydney-based HMAS Stuart as "extended readiness" and it blames the mining boom's high wages for cornering the market in highly qualified technicians.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said it would take the senior service until 2018 or 2020 to recover from the shortage depending on what happened in the resource sector.

He said the impact of the loss of two frigates would be minimal because three of the ships would be out of service receiving an anti-ship missile upgrade.

"We still have a problem with technical sailors and retaining technical sailors," Admiral Griggs said.

"It is going to be a long-term thing to recover from."

Defence said the navy had been working on a number of initiatives to stabilise the technical workforce. This has included targeted retention bonuses, re-structuring of the fleet support units, industry outplacement programs and a focus on retention.

HMAS Anzac was out of service for about 35 days for "unscheduled maintenance", HMAS Sydney lost 28 days and HMAS Darwin 27 days.

"Sydney's scheduled docking maintenance availability was extended beyond the planned date due to a defect in the ship's main propulsion system identified during the scheduled maintenance period," a navy spokesman said. "During Darwin's scheduled maintenance period additional work was required to repair defects in the ship's gas turbine engine exhaust uptake system."

The navy said it has worked very hard during the past 14 months to better manage the competing demands of operational availability and maintenance requirements. Availability has also been a major challenge for the 14-vessel Armidale class patrol boat fleet during the first six months of this year when it lost 215 days due to unscheduled repairs and maintenance.

In addition to the well publicised gas leak and hull cracking problems, the navy has also highlighted issues with stern tube bearings and cooling, rigid hull inflatable boats and their davits and main engine fuel pumps.

"Despite reduced availability, the Armidale force has met all required operational tasking," the navy said.