Guardian-class patrol boat
The Guardian-class patrol boats are a class of small patrol vessels designed and built in Australia and provided to small South Pacific Ocean countries as part of the Australian Government's Pacific Maritime Security Program.[2][3][4]
The class is designed to be updated replacements for the Pacific Forum-class patrol boats provided to its allies from 1987 to 1997.[2][5][6][7][8][9] Australia provided twenty-two Pacific Forum vessels to twelve nations. They were designed to use commercial off the shelf components, to make them easier to maintain for the small nations that would operate them. Australia stood ready to help with training and maintenance, during the duration of the program, because Australia's external security issues were eased if it could count on its sovereign neighbours having resources to police their own external security.
Austal was commissioned to build 19 Guardian-class boats in 2016.[10][11] Austal's contract allows it to market the design to additional customers.[12] Subsequently, an additional three vessels were ordered. Two for Timor-Leste, and one new replacement vessel for the Samoan Nafanua II, which was damaged beyond repair on 5 August 2021.[13] The last vessels are scheduled for delivery in late 2023.
Austal delivered HMPNGS Ted Diro to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force on 30 November 2018.[14] Her engines broke down in October 2019, and she had to be towed to Australia for repairs.[15]
Orders and delivery[edit]
Austal was commissioned to build 19 Guardian-class boats in 2016.[10][11] This was fewer than the 22 Pacific-class patrol boats Australia ordered for the same recipients back in the 1980s. The Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga, who had operated three Pacific-class boats each from the original program, were to be gifted two Guardian-class patrol boats each as replacements. While the patrol boats are gifts and become the recipient's sovereign property upon delivery,[30] the purchase contract contains provisions for Austal to provide maintenance support to the client states, for seven years, out of its Cairns facility.[11]
The keel of the first vessel was laid in July 2017.[32] That vessel was scheduled to be delivered to Papua New Guinea in October 2018.[33][34] New vessels were scheduled to be completed every three months.[35][36][37] The first vessel was delivered on 30 November 2018,[14] and commissioned into the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) on 1 February 2019.[38] The second was commissioned into the Tuvalu Police Force on 5 April 2019.[39][40] The fourth vessel was delivered to Samoa on 16 August 2019.[41]
Australia announced on 19 April 2018 that they ordered two more vessels to gift them to Timor-Leste.[42] They did this by exercising a pre-negotiated option in the original contract, at an additional cost of A$29.7 million.[43] Timor-Leste did not receive Pacific Forum boats in the original program.
In June 2021, the Australian Defence Force agreed to the PNGDF's request to arm their four patrol boats.[26] Two boats had been delivered to Papua New Guinea at the time. It is unclear which armaments will be installed and who will install them on behalf of the ADF.
During a visit to Apia in June 2022, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that Australia will build an additional vessel to replace Nafanua II, which was damaged beyond repair on 5 August 2021.[13]