 HMAS HOBART (D39) was a Perth Class Guided Missile Destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy. She was laid down by Defoe Shipbuilding Company at Bay City, Michigan, USA on 26 October 1962 and was launched on 9 January 1964 by Mrs David Hay, wife of the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, and Commissioned at Boston in Massachusetts on 18 December 1965.
HOBART arrived in Tasmania on 1 September 1966, however on 22 December 1966, Prime Minister Harold Holt announced that HOBART would deploy to Vietnam. HOBART served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon and Market Time operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out gunfire support missions during the conflict.
On June 17, 1968 while on the gun line with Yankee Station off the coast of North Vietnam, HOBART was struck by three Sparrow missiles fired from a USAF 7th Air Force aircraft (one of the three missiles failed to explode). Two crewmen were killed and seven injured. HOBART and USS BOSTON had been in the vicinity of two US Navy Swift Boats (PCF-12 & PCF-19) that were attacked and sunk after a 2 hour gun battle by North Vietnamese Helicopters. US jets arrived several hours later (around midnight) but the enemy aircraft had departed. As the attack by helicopter was unprecedented, the US aircraft attacked the BOSTON and HOBART assuming they were the enemy who sunk the Swift Boats. The BOSTON suffered no casualties, and was only slightly damaged. In all, HOBART served three tours of duty, and was awarded the United States Navy Unit Commendation for the 1st and 3rd Tours in Vietnam. HOBART was decommissioned on 12 May 2000 and was sunk as a dive wreck four nautical miles west-north-west of Marina Vincent, Yankalilla Bay, South Australia on 5 November 2002.
Launched: 9 January 1964
Type: Guided missile destroyer
Commissioned: 18 December 1965
Decommissioned: 12 May 2000
Displacement: 4,720 tonnes
Length: 133.2 m (437 ft)
Beam: 14.3 m (47 ft)
Armament: Mk 13 Mod 6 launcher for SM-1; 2 x 127 mm/54 (5 in/54) Mk 42; 2 x 20 mm Mk 15 Vulcan Phalanx; 2 x triple 324 mm [Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes
Main Machinery: 2 ? General Electric steam turbines providing 70,000 hp (52 mW)
Speed: 30+ knots
Ship's Company: 332
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