The ship was originally ordered in 2010 by DOF Subsea as an offshore support vessel, and was laid down by STX OSV as MSV Skandi Bergen in 2011.

In 2012, the Australian Department of Defence was seeking a short-term replacement for the decommissioned Kanimbla-class amphibious landing ships, and negotiated to purchase the under-construction Skandi Bergen from DOF Subsea.

Ocean Shield's operation was only intended to cover the shortfall in RAN sealift capability until the Canberra-class landing helicopter dock ships entered service, and in 2014, the vessel was handed over to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (the precursor agency to the Border Force), with the ship's designation changing to Australian Customs Vessel (ACV) Ocean Shield.

The restructuring of Customs to create the Border Force occurred in mid-2015, with Ocean Shield's prefix changing from ACV to ABFC.

[2][6] This equipment was retained by the shipyard for installation in a replacement vessel ordered by DOF Subsea, with a 60-tonne SWL crane fitted instead to Skandi Bergen.

[8] In March 2014, Ocean Shield was sent to participate in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, off the west coast of Australia.

[10][11][12] Starting on 14 April 2014, Ocean Shield stopped towing the pinger locator and instead deployed the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21, a sidescan sonar robotic submarine, to map the area.

[15] After being transferred to Customs, Ocean Shield received modifications in Singapore and Hobart to improve its suitability for patrol tasks.