HMAS Australia (R23)

The HMAS Australia (R23) was the only ship of the Australia-class. Its Australia ' s predecessor had suffered serious damage during the 2008 Indian Ocean War with the cost to repair the 55 year old carrier coming in at over AU$3 billion dollars. It was instead decided that they would build a rreplacement carrier while the old Essex-class carrier becomes a museum ship.

The Australia design was selected from a series of competing designs from BAe Systems, Blohm and Voss, Canada Shipbuilding, DCNS, and General Dynamics. While several of the designs came close to the RAN's needs, the Canada Shipbuilding design had an advantage, courtesy of Pretoria. The Canadian design was powered by a pair of pebble bed nuclear reactors developed by the South African company PBMR Inc....