page_title: HMAS Melbourne (R21)
section_title: 1964–1969
hierarchical_section_title: HMAS Melbourne (R21) / Operational history / 1964–1969
caption_attribution_description: The Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21) in the 1960s. Five Westland Wessex HAS.31A helicopters are on the flight deck. In the foreground another Wessex (s/n WA215) banks away. Note the dipping sonar housed underneath its fuselage.
context_page_description: HMAS Melbourne (R21) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Australian Navy from 1955 until 1982, and was the third and final conventional aircraft carrier to serve in the RAN. Melbourne was the only Commonwealth naval vessel to sink two friendly warships in peacetime collisions.
  Melbourne was laid down for the Royal Navy as the lead ship of the Majestic class in April 1943, and was launched as HMS Majestic in February 1945. At the end of the Second World War, work on the ship was suspended until she was purchased by the RAN in 1947. At the time of purchase, it was decided to incorporate new aircraft carrier technologies into the design, making Melbourne the third ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck. Delays in construction and integrating the enhancements meant that the carrier was not commissioned until 1955.
  Melbourne never fired a shot in anger during her service career, having only peripheral, non-combat roles in relation to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War. She was, however, involved in two major collisions with allied vessels; though Melbourne was found not to be the primary cause of either incident.
context_section_description: Melbourne spent ten weeks at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, having her new bow fitted. Following the repairs, Melbourne was involved in Strategic Reserve deployments and exercises in Southeast Asia from June until September 1964. During this deployment, the carrier visited Subic Bay, where the RAN performed flight deck trials with S-2 Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and A-4 Skyhawk attack fighters. The success of the trials, along with the discovery that Melbourne was able to operate both aircraft with relatively minor modification, led the Australian Government to approve the purchase of these aircraft.
  From March 1965 until mid-1967, Melbourne underwent a regular pattern of deployments to Southeast Asia, exercises, and flag-showing visits to nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Several of the Southeast Asian deployments were related to the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and involved participation in show of force exercises off the coast of Malaysia. During 1965 and 1966, Melbourne escorted sister ship HMAS Sydney, which had been recommissioned as a troop transport, for short periods during the latter's first, third, and fourth transport voyages to Vietnam. Despite the carrier being the centrepiece of several plans to involve Australian forces in the Vietnam War, the escort runs were the extent of Melbourne's participation in the conflict, and the carrier remained outside the Market Time area while Sydney and her other escorts proceeded to Vũng Tàu. As the carrier was optimised for anti-submarine warfare, there was little need for her at the start of the war. Utilising the carrier was suggested again by RAN officials in March 1966, when the United States Seventh Fleet was having difficulties maintaining anti-submarine patrols around Yankee Station, but Melbourne could only remain on station for a single, ten-day period, a third of the time that US carriers were operational for on rotating deployments. Seventh Fleet staff suggested in April 1967 that Melbourne deploy in the anti-submarine role, but nothing came of these talks. Consideration was also given to using Melbourne as a floating helicopter base, but only ten Wessex helicopters could be provided, and modifications were required for them to operate as troop carriers. Both options were made more prohibitive by the need to supply at least two escorts for the carrier at a time when the RAN was having difficulty meeting deployment commitments with the available destroyers and destroyer escorts.
  In September 1967, Melbourne travelled to the United States to collect new aircraft: 14 Trackers and 10 Skyhawks. To operate the new aircraft, the carrier received a major refit on her return to Sydney, which began in December 1967. In May 1967, it was proposed that while Melbourne was out of service, A-4 Skyhawk pilots and maintenance personnel could be attached to a United States Marine Corps Skyhawk squadron in South Vietnam. Australian aircraft were not to be provided, as the A-4G Skyhawks used by the RAN were optimised for air defence, not the fighter-bomber role performed by the Marines, and would have suffered heavy losses from North Vietnam's heavy anti-aircraft defences. This deployment did not occur; the Skyhawk pilot training program was experiencing delays because US squadrons were being shipped training equipment and replacement parts in priority to the RAN, and sending qualified pilots overseas would have caused further holdups with the program, while also disrupting Melbourne's post-refit reactivation. Melbourne re-entered service at the conclusion of the refit on 14 February 1969. She performed sea trials in Jervis Bay from 17 February until 5 May, then sailed for Subic Bay, Philippines, to participate in SEATO Exercise Sea Spirit.
caption: Melbourne with five Wessex helicopters on her flight deck and another flying overheard
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