In response to the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami, Royal New Zealand Navy’s HMNZS Aotearoa and HMNZS Wellington have been deployed to offer water provides, survey groups, and helicopter help. HMNZS Aotearoa additionally refuels Tonga’s Guardian-class patrol boat VOEA Ngahau Siliva in Nuku’alofa Harbour. Provide supplied help to ships by way of fast refueling whereas Royal New Zealand Navy performed humanitarian help and catastrophe response actions. The refueling is carried out in a contactless approach, in step with COVID-19 prevention protocols. The supply of unpolluted water to the folks of Tonga has continued to be a precedence for the crew of HMNZS Aotearoa, following the eruption and tsunami which struck Tonga greater than per week in the past.
On 14 January 2022, a really giant eruption on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai, an uninhabited volcanic island of the Tongan archipelago within the southern Pacific Ocean, started. The eruption reached a strong climax on the following day, 15 January. The eruption brought on tsunamis in Tonga, Fiji, American Samoa, Vanuatu, and alongside the Pacific rim. A minimum of three folks have been killed, some have been injured, and plenty of stay lacking in Tonga from tsunami waves as much as 15 m (49 ft) excessive. Pictures confirmed that many of the island have been worn out; the New Zealand Defence Drive described the damages as “catastrophic”. There have been some experiences of residents in Tonga struggling to breathe because of the ash.
Commercial
VOEA Ngahau Siliva (P302) is the second of Tonga’s two Guardian-class patrol vessels. She is the eighth vessel of the 21 vessels in her class. Tonga was given three Pacific Discussion board-class patrol vessels in 1989, 1990, and 1991, VOEA Neiafu, VOEA Pangai, and VOEA Savea. These vessels have been designed to have a working lifetime of at the least 30 years, so Australia designed the Guardian class, a barely bigger, and extra succesful substitute class. Australia delivered her sister ship, the third vessel of her class, VOEA Ngahau Koula, to Tonga on June 21, 2019. She was formally handed over to Tonga on 30 October 2020, at Austal’s shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia. HM King Tupou VI commissioned the vessel on January 27, 2021.
HMNZS Aotearoa, previously the Maritime Sustainment Functionality venture, is an auxiliary ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Builder Hyundai Heavy Industries delivered the ship to the Navy in June 2020, and he or she was commissioned into service on 29 July 2020. The total operational functionality was anticipated to be achieved in 2021. It can function a replenishment oiler and has changed HMNZS Endeavour, the Navy’s final fleet oiler, which was decommissioned in December 2017. Aotearoa is the most important ship the Royal New Zealand Navy has operated. Aotearoa is meant to help different navy warships by enabling re-fueling (diesel) and re-supplying (meals and ammunition) throughout operations. The 26,000-tonne (26,000-long-ton) ship will present marine diesel oil and aviation gas. It shops meals and ammunition in 20-foot (6.1 m) containers.
