HMAS Brisbane (D 41) was one of three Perth-class guided missile destroyers to serve in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The United States-designed ship was laid down at Bay City, Michigan in 1965, launched in 1966 and commissioned into the RAN in 1967. She is named after the city of Brisbane, Queensland. During her career, Brisbane made two deployments to the Vietnam War, was involved in the post-Cyclone Tracy disaster relief operation Navy Help Darwin, and deployed to the Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War. Brisbane was decommissioned in 2001, and was sunk as a dive wreck off the Queensland coast in 2005. Design and construction Brisbane was one of three Perth-class guided missile destroyers built for the RAN. Based on the United States Navy's Charles F. Adams class, Brisbane had a displacement of 3,370 tons at standard load, and 4,551 tons at full load, a length of overall and between perpendiculars, a beam of , and a maximum draught of . Propulsion was provided by two General Electric turbines, which provided to the destroyer's two propeller shafts. Brisbane could achieve speeds of . The ship's company consisted of 24 officers and 312 sailors. As a guided missile destroyer, Brisbanes main armament consisted of a Mark 13 missile launcher firing Tartar missiles and two Ikara anti-submarine missile launchers. This was supplemented by two 5"/54 calibre Mark 42 guns and two Mark 32 triple torpedo tube sets. Over the course of the ship's career, the Mark 13 launcher was modified to fire Standard missiles, two Phalanx CIWS units were installed in 1990, and the Ikara launchers were removed in 1991. Brisbane was laid down by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company at Bay City, Michigan on 15 February 1965. The ship was launched on 5 May 1966 by the wife of Fred Chaney, Sr., the Minister for the Navy. Brisbane was handed over to the RAN at Boston Navy Yard on 7 December 1967, and was commissioned into the RAN nine days later. The cost of the destroyer was approximately A$50 million. The ship was given the nicknames Steel Cat and Fighting Forty-One (references to her ship's badge and pennant number respectively). During construction, the ship was assigned the United States Navy hull number DDG-27. Brisbane spent the first nine months of her career undergoing exercises in US waters, before sailing for Australia on 28 September 1968. After visits to Pearl Harbor