Australia launches enterprise initiative for OPV programme 08 March 2021 by Jon Grevatt Australia has launched initiatives to support enhanced industrial collaboration in the programme to build Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The Department of Defence (DoD) in Canberra said on 5 March that it had established an OPV Enterprise initiative and a related systems programme office at the Henderson maritime precinct in Western Australia, where the majority of the vessels were being constructed. A computer-generated image of the Arafura class, which is being built under Australia’s Sea 1180 Phase 1 programme. (Lürssen Australia/ASC) The DoD said that the OPV Enterprise “brings together Commonwealth and defence industry teams under one roof, to build and sustain the RAN’s new Arafura-class OPVs”.