HMAS Arunta (DDL-1938+)
Australis Navy Tribal Class destroyer leaders. 30 years prior these ships would have been classed as cruisers, which shows how much the classes of ships had grown since the Dreadnought turned shipbuilding on its head. Arunta and its sisters differed from the British Tribals in that they had a set of quintuple torpedo tubes instead of the quad set carried by the Afridis.
With a nice blend of size and power these ships had double the firepower of the earlier A-G class destroyers. The Australis Tribals were used in the Pacific and Mediterranean where their heavy AA capability was much appreciated by the ships they escorted. Rather than building the J-N class ships the Royal Navy built, the Australis Navy kept with the Tribal type and built two flotillas. The set of quintuple tubes meant that they had only one less than the V/W class and only three less than the A-H class.
The first 4 of the class were laid down in 1935, another four in 1936, and another 4 in 1937, with a final 4 in 1938.
| Displacement | 1900 tons std, 2550 tons full load | Sketch of twin 4.5" MkXI turret. |
| Length | 378 ft | |
| Breadth | 37 ft | |
| Draught | 15 ft | |
| Machinery | 2 shaft steam turbines, 44,000shp | |
| Speed | 35 knots | |
| Range | 6000 miles at 15 knots | |
| Armour | nil |
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| Armament | 8 x 4.5" (4x2) 4 x 2pd (1x4) 6 x 20mm (2x2 2x1) |
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| Aircraft | nil | |
| Torpedoes | 5x21" (1x5) | |
| Complement | 220 | |
| Notes | HMAS Arunta 1938 HMAS Yanyuwa 1938 HMAS Wiradjuri 1938 HMAS Kauma 1939 HMAS Duwal 1939 HMAS Gandangara 1939 HMAS Tharawal 1939 HMAS Rembarunga 1939 HMAS Pitjantjara 1940 HMAS Narabal 1940 HMAS Muringura 1940 HMAS Korindji 1940 HMAS Eora 1940 HMAS Burarra 1940 HMAS Dainggati 1941 HMAS Ingura 1941 |