The 2009 Defence White Paper announced that a new class of 20 offshore combatant vessels would replace the "Armidale" and "Huon" classes, along with the and -class survey ships. The multi-role ships are predicted to displace anywhere up to 2,000 tonnes, and may be equipped with a helicopter or unmanned aerial vehicle. However the 2016 Defense White Paper decreased the amount of planned vessels to twelve and stated that they would only replace the "Armidale"s while the other classes would see life-extension work. Lurssen's OPV 80 design was chosen. The class was named (OPV). The first ship will be named .