High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Armidale class is a class of patrol boats built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for a class of twelve vessels to replace the fifteen Fremantle class patrol boats began in 1993 as a joint project with the Royal Malaysian Navy, but was cancelled when Malaysia pulled out of the process. The project was reopened in 1999 under the designation SEA 1444, with the RAN as the sole participant. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal Ships/Defence Maritime Services proposal based on an enlarged Bay-class patrol boat was selected. The first vessel, HMAS Armidale, commissioned into the RAN in June 2005. Two more patrol boats were ordered in 2005, bringing the class to fourteen.