HMAS Rankin (SSG 78)

HMAS Rankin is the sixth and final submarine of the Collins class, which are operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Named for Lieutenant Commander Robert William Rankin, the boat was laid down in 1995, and commissioned into the RAN in March 2003, following major delays.

Early in her career, Rankin was the subject of a documentary series and a coffee table book. She was the first submarine since 1987 to be awarded the Gloucester Cup.

Construction
Rankin was laid down by Australian Submarine Corporation on 12 May 1995. The boat was launched on 7 November 2001. She was delivered to the RAN on 18 March 2003 and commissioned on 29 March 2003, 41 months behind schedule, after major delays in the completion and fitting out of the boat due to the diversion of resources to the "fast track" submarines HMAS Dechaineux (SSG 76) and HMAS Sheean (SSG 77) and repeated cannibalisation for parts to repair the other five Collins-class boats.

Rankin was named for Lieutenant Commander Robert William Rankin, who died when the ship he commanded, HMAS Yarra (U77), engaged a force of five Japanese warships on 4 March 1942, to allow an Allied convoy to escape. The boat is nicknamed "The Black Knight".

Characteristics
The Collins class is an enlarged version of the Kockums Västergötland-class submarine. At 77.42 m in length, with a beam of 7.8 m and a waterline depth of 7 m, displacing 3,051 tonnes when surfaced, and 3,353 tonnes when submerged, they are the largest conventionally powered submarines in the world. The hull is constructed from high-tensile micro-alloy steel, and are covered in a skin of anechoic tiles to minimise detection by sonar. The depth that they can dive to is classified: most sources claim that it is over 180 m,

The submarine is armed with six 21 in torpedo tubes, and carry a standard payload of 22 torpedoes: originally a mix of Gould Mark 48 Mod 4 torpedoes and UGM-84C Sub-Harpoon, with the Mark 48s later upgraded to the Mod 7 Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS) version.

Each submarine is equipped with three Garden Island-Hedemora HV V18b/15Ub (VB210) 18-cylinder diesel engines, which are each connected to a 1,400 kW, 440-volt DC Jeumont-Schneider generator. The electricity generated is stored in batteries, then supplied to a single Jeumont-Schneider DC motor, which provides 7,200 shaft horsepower to a single, seven-bladed, 4.22 m diameter skewback propeller. The Collins class has a speed of 10.5 kn when surfaced and at snorkel depth, and can reach 21 kn underwater. The submarines have a range of 11000 nmi at 10 kn when surfaced, 9000 nmi at 10 kn at snorkel depth. When submerged completely, a Collins class submarine can travel 32.6 nmi at maximum speed, or 480 nmi at 4 kn. Each boat has a endurance of 70 days.

Operational history
During a multinational exercise in September 2003, which was attended by Rankin and sister boat Waller, Rankin successfully "sank" a Singaporean anti-submarine warfare vessel.

In 2004, a film crew was embarked aboard Rankin for the creation of Submariners, a six-part documentary aired by SBS in 2005 and depicting life aboard a submarine. The film crew was on board from February to April 2004, during which the boat completed pre-deployment trials, participated in the submarine rescue exercise Pacific Reach, and made a diplomatic visit to Kure, Japan. They later rejoined Rankin during the submarine's deployment to Hawaii for RIMPAC 04 in June and July. Later that year, Rankin was also the subject of the book Beneath Southern Seas. The coffee table book, which encompasses the history of the Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service, was primarily based on photographs and interviews of Rankin and those aboard taken by the authors during a twelve-day voyage from Sydney to Fremantle, concluding the six-month deployment started during the filming of Submariners. The 20000 nmi voyage—the longest undertaken by a Collins-class submarine to that date—began with workups in February, and saw the submarine visit Korea, Japan, and Hawaii, and participate in various multinational exercises before returning to Fremantle via Sydney. Rankin was at sea for 126 days, 80% of which was spent underwater.

On 10 June 2005, Rankin was presented with the Gloucester Cup. Presented to the RAN vessel with the greatest overall efficiency over the previous twelve months, Rankin was the first Collins-class submarine to earn the Cup, and the first submarine to receive it since HMAS Orion in 1987. The award was again presented to Rankin in 2008.

Rankin was docked for a long maintenance period in 2008, but workforce shortages and malfunctions on other submarines requiring urgent attention have drawn this out: RAN and ASC officials predict that she will not be back in service until 2013.