HMAS Newcastle (FFG 06)

HMAS Newcastle (FFG 06), named for the city of Newcastle, New South Wales, the largest provincial city in Australia, is an Adelaide class guided-missile frigate of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The last ship of the class to be constructed, Newcastle entered service in 1993. During her career, the frigate has operated as part of the INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce, served in the Persian Gulf, and responded to the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. The frigate is active as of 2013.

Construction
Newcastle was laid down by AMECON at Williamstown, Victoria, launched on 21 February 1992 and commissioned into the RAN on 11 December 1993. Unlike the first four Adelaide class frigates, Newcastle was not constructed in the United States of America and therefore does not possess a US Navy hull number.

Newcastle is the only Adelaide class ship not named after a state capital city. Instead, she is named after Newcastle, New South Wales, the largest regional city in the country. She is the first ship of the RAN to be named Newcastle, but eight Royal Navy ships have been named HMS Newcastle. The Australian Newcastle was the first RAN ship not to inherit battle honours awarded to previous British ships of the same name.

Operational history
Newcastle was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 19 December 1999 to 26 January 2000.

During 2005, Newcastle was deployed to the Persian Gulf. Newcastle and HMAS Parramatta (FFH 154) were the first RAN ships to be fitted with two M2HB .50 calibre machine guns in Mini Typhoon mounts; now a standard theatre fit for all RAN frigates deployed to the Persian Gulf.

At the start of November 2006, Newcastle was one of three Australian warships sent to Fiji during the leadup to the 2006 coup d'état by Fijian military forces against Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Newcastle was the first vessel on station, and was later joined by HMAS Kanimbla (L 51) and HMAS Success (AOR 304). The three vessels were to be used in the event of an evacuation of Australian citizens and nationals. It did not prove necessary to conduct an evacuation and Newcastle returned to Australia in late December 2006.

On the morning of 13 March 2009, Newcastle was one of seventeen warships involved in a ceremonial fleet entry and fleet review in Sydney Harbour, the largest collection of RAN ships since the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. The frigate was one of the thirteen ships involved in the ceremonial entry through Sydney Heads, and anchored in the harbour for the review.

Following an overhaul of the RAN battle honours system, completed in March 2010, Newcastle's service was recognised with two honours: "East Timor 1999–2000" and "Persian Gulf 2002–03". In April 2010, Newcastle was presented with the RAN Gloucester Cup, recognising her as the most efficient ship during 2009. During July and August 2010, Newcastle was one of three RAN ships to participate in the RIMPAC 2010 multinational exercise.