Austal Restricted (Austal) is happy to announce Austal Australia has delivered the twelfth Guardian-class Patrol Boat (GCPB) to the Australian Division of Defence. The vessel, the RVS Takuare, was then gifted by the Australian Authorities to the Authorities of the Republic of Vanuatu at a certificates signing ceremony held on the Australian Marine Advanced, in Henderson, Western Australia. The vessel is the primary Guardian-class Patrol Boat to be delivered to Vanuatu underneath the Pacific Patrol Boat Alternative Mission (SEA3036-1), a part of the Australian Authorities’s Pacific Maritime Safety Program; and replaces the RVS Tukoro, a Pacific-class Patrol Boat delivered in 1987.
The 39.5 metre metal monohull patrol boat – designed, constructed and sustained by Austal Australia – relies on a confirmed design platform that has included the 38 metre Bay-class, 56 metre Armidale-class and 58 metre Cape-class patrol boats which are in service with the Australian Border Drive and Royal Australian Navy. Sooner, with improved seakeeping, higher facilities and an enhanced mission functionality – together with an built-in RHIB stern launch and restoration system – the Guardian-class Patrol Boats present the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing with a a lot improved naval asset to hold out border patrols, regional policing, search and rescue, and lots of different operations domestically and internationally. The Pacific Patrol Boat Alternative (PPB-R) Mission was awarded to Austal in Could 2016, with a further contract choice awarded in April 2018, taking this system to 21 vessels, valued at greater than A$335 million.
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The ceremony was attended in individual and on-line by His Excellency, Mr Samson Vilvil Farray, Vanuatu Excessive Commissioner to Australia; Chief Inspector Dicky Obed from the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing; Minister for Defence Business The Hon Melissa Worth MP; RADM Wendy Malcolm, Head of Maritime Techniques, Division of Defence Functionality Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG); RADM Kath Richards, Head of Navy Engineering, Royal Australian Navy, Air Commodore Fiona Dowse, Senior ADF Officer WA and Mr Gerald Thomson, First Assistant Secretary, Pacific Bilateral Division, Division of International Affairs and Commerce.
Twelve Pacific Island nations together with Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Cook dinner Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Timor Leste will obtain the vessels by means of to 2023. The Pacific Patrol Boat Alternative Mission helps greater than 200 direct jobs at Austal Australia and greater than 200 oblique jobs nationally by means of Australian companies contracted by Austal. Austal Australia’s expanded service centre in Cairns, incorporating a 1,200 tonne (80 metre LOA) slipway and a 1,120 tonne cellular boat hoist, continues to offer in-service assist to the rising Guardian-class Patrol Boat fleet; with greater than 100 folks now employed in quite a lot of engineering and sustainment roles within the Far North Queensland metropolis.
