Hull Surface Treatment (HST) technology is a new environmentally friendly hull cleaning technology for treating the growth on a ship's hull.

It uses no chemicals, detergents or substances which are foreign or harmful to the marine environment. HST instantly kills growth which is then abraded in open seas.
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May 2011-
Recently the Royal Australian Navy selected HST as a significant contributor to their STRATEGIC REFORM PROGRAM. The SRP is all about changing the way the Australian Navy operate in order to produce savings so that this money can be reinvested in procuring/upgrading various assets.

HST is being 'showcased' by the RAN as one of their initiatives to provide substantial fuel savings.

Click on this link to see the Navy's Strategic Reform Program Mythbuster Videos: www.gatecrashermedia.com.au/navy

HST underwent a rigorous trial by the Australian Navy’s DSTO over the past twelve months. The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is part of Australia's Department of Defence. They are the Australian Government’s lead agency charged with applying science and technology to protect and defend Australia and its national interests. The DSTO confirmed that HST is compliant with the ANZECC code for in-water cleaning.

During the trials HST was applied to four ships to assess if the technology achieved all the results that it claimed. The report published by the DSTO stated that HST killed all the growth in which it came into contact and that the technology was capable of reaching significant areas of the underwater sections of a ship. The report stated that HST will provide the Royal Australian Navy with an initial fuel saving of 4% and that this would increase as the anti foul coatings deteriorated during the dry dock cycle of the ships.

The RAN estimated HST will reduce their operational costs by approximately AUS$11 million per year.

Additional benefits were the reduction in wear and tear on propulsive machinery and reduced green house gas emissions.

It was also suggested that HST will provide the opportunity to extend the time between dry docking providing even greater savings and reducing the carbon foot print of each ship.

"The implementation of the first stages of the Strategic Reform Program (SRP) is considered to be so important that the Defence Portfolio Budget Statements 2010-2011 identify it as 'the Government's key initiative in 2010-11’, placing it second only to the conduct of current operations. The Government has put a great deal of emphasis on the need for the SRP to succeed. The Defence Minister, John Faulkner, said in his budget media release on the SRP that 'to be blunt' achieving Force 2030 in its full potential will not be possible without achieving the SRP.

The SRP was initiated in 2009 in the Defence White Paper as part of the Government's financial plan for Defence to deliver 'gross savings' of $20 billion over the next decade."

Download the White Paper STRATEGIC REFORM PROGRAM - DELIVERING FORCE 2030 to learn more about these reforms.