ADV Cape Inscription

Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Cape Inscription, named after Cape Inscription in Western Australia, is a Cape-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).^[1]

ABFC Cape York, sister ship of Cape Inscription, at Austal shipyards in Henderson, Western Australia in December 2020
History
Australia
Namesake	Cape Inscription
Builder	Austal, Henderson, Western Australia
In service	May 2017
Homeport	HMAS Cairns
Identification	IMO number: 9806251 MMSI number: 503216000 Callsign: VMCI Pennant number: 320
General characteristics
Class & type	Cape-class patrol boat
Length	58.1 m (190 ft 7 in)
Beam	10.6 m (34 ft 9 in)
Draught	3.1 m (10 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	2 x Caterpillar 3516C diesels 6,770 horsepower (5,050 kW) 2 shafts, 1 bow thruster
Speed	26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph)
Range	4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	25 standard, 32 maximum
Armament	2 × 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine guns

The ship is the second of two Cape-class patrol boats to be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy, the first having been the Cape Fourcroy. The ship was built by Austal in Henderson, Western Australia, commissioned in May 2017 and based at HMAS Cairns in Queensland.^[1]

Austal was originally awarded a $350 million contract to construct eight Cape-class patrol boats for the Australian Border Force to replace the Bay-class patrol boats in 2011, with the eight boats delivered between 2013 and 2015. A $63 million contract for two more boats, for lease by the RAN, was awarded to Austal by the National Australia Bank in December 2015.^[1] Subsequently, the RAN ordered another eight Evolved Cape-class patrol boats from Austal.^[2][3] In November 2023, the RAN ordered a further two evolved Cape-class patrols, at a cost of A$157.1 million.^[4]

Unlike the later ten boats, which are in a grey colour scheme, Cape Inscription and Cape Fourcroy are in the blue and white colour scheme of the eight Australian Border Force vessels, but without the red stripe.^[5]