Written by
Marine Log Workers
Austal Australia has delivered the seventeenth Guardian-class Patrol Boat to the Australian Division of Defence. The HMPNGS Gilbert Toropo is the 4th vessel to be gifted to the Paua New Guinea Defence Power by the Australian Authorities below the Pacific Maritime Safety Program. (Picture: Australian Division of Defence)
Austal Australia has delivered the seventeenth Guardian-class patrol boat (GCPB) to the Australian Division of Defence. The vessel, HMPNGS Gilbert Toropo, was then gifted by the Australian Authorities to the Papua New Guinea Defence Power at a handover ceremony held at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia.
The ceremony was attended by Australia’s Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans Affairs, Matt Keogh, MP, and Papua New Guinea Minister for Defence, Win Bakri Daki, MP.
The brand new Guardian-class patrol boat is the fourth of 4 vessels to be gifted to Papua New Guinea below the Pacific Patrol Boat Substitute Undertaking, a part of the Australian Authorities’s Pacific Maritime Safety Program.
Austal Restricted CEO Paddy Gregg stated the most recent Guardian-class patrol boat completes the fleet of latest vessels for Papua New Guinea, with the earlier three vessels, Ted Diro, Rochus Lokinap and Francis Agwi delivered in December 2018, March 2021 and October 2021 respectively.
“Papua New Guinea now has 4 Guardian-class patrol boats which have added higher functionality to the Navy, strengthened Papua New Guinea’s maritime area and are actively contributing to regional maritime safety,” stated Gregg. “Our warmest congratulations go to Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Nathan Tai Tombe and the crew of the HMPNGS Gilbert Toropo, and we want them ‘honest winds and following seas’ for his or her journey dwelling and future mission.”
Sooner than the earlier/present Pacific-class patrol boats, 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 boat gives Papua New Guinea with a much-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 Substitute Undertaking was awarded to Austal Australia in Could 2016, with subsequent, contract choices awarded in April 2018 and November 2022 taking the challenge to 22 vessels, valued at greater than AUD 350 million, in whole. 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 are receiving vessels.
The Pacific Patrol Boat Substitute Undertaking helps greater than 200 direct jobs at Austal Australia and greater than 200 oblique jobs nationally by Australian companies contracted by Austal.
Austal Australia’s service heart in Cairns, incorporating a 1,200 tonne (80 meter LOA) slipway and a 1,120 tonne cellular boat hoist, continues to offer in-service help to the rising Guardian-class fleet; with greater than 100 individuals employed in a wide range of engineering and sustainment roles within the Far North Queensland metropolis.
The 39.5 meter metal monohull patrol boat is predicated on a confirmed design platform that has included the 38 meter Bay-class, 56 meter Armidale-class and 58 meter Cape-class patrol boats which can be in service with the Australian Border Power and Royal Australian Navy.
