 Lata, sister ship to Auki | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Solomon Islands | |
| Name | Auki |
| Operator | Solomon Islands |
| Launched | 1991 |
| Decommissioned | March 4, 2021 |
| Status | decommissioned |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Pacific Forum-class patrol boat |
| Displacement | 162 tons |
| Length | 103 ft (31 m) |
RSIPV Auki is one of the Pacific Forum patrol boats Australia gave to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force. [1] [2]
Following the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea extending maritime nations' exclusive economic zones to 200 kilometres (110 nmi) Australia agreed to design, build, and give twelve of its fellow members of the Pacific Forum with patrol vessels, so they could police and extend sovereignty to their exclusive economic zones using their own resources. [3] Australia also helped build bases for the vessels, provide training, and help with maintenance.
Australia designed the vessels to use commercial off-the-shelf equipment instead of cutting-edge, high-performance, military grade equipment, to ease the maintenance burden for their smaller neighbours.
Auki helped provide aid to Vanuatu in 2015, after it was struck by a tropical cyclone. [4]
Auki remained in service after her sister ship Lata was decommissioned on September 11, 2019. [5] [6] [7]
Auki helped distribute ballot boxes in Vanuatu, in preparation for a general election, in March 2020. [8] Following detection of a tourist infected with the Covid-19 virus, in Vanuatu, Auki moored offshore of their opposite number's base, and prepared to begin a 14 day quarantine period, prior to returning to the Solomon Islands.
RSIPV Auki was official decommissioned on March 4, 2021. [9]
Australia is scheduled to replace Auki with the RSIPV Taro, a new, larger and more capable Guardian-class patrol boat in May 2021. [2] [10]
Communications in the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands is a country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, to the northeast of Australia. It is directly adjacent to Papua New Guinea to the northwest, Australia to the southwest, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the southeast, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna and Tuvalu to the east, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia to the north. It has a land area of 29,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi), and a population of approximately 700,000. Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the wider area of the Solomon Islands (archipelago), which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, but excludes the Santa Cruz Islands.
The Pacific class is a class of 22 patrol boats built by Australia and donated to twelve South Pacific countries. They were constructed between 1985 and 1997 and are operated by militaries, coast guards or police forces of twelve island nations. These boats are supported by the Pacific Patrol Boat Program and used primarily for maritime surveillance and fisheries protection.
The Vanuatu Police Force is the national law enforcement of Vanuatu. The VPF is headquartered in Port Vila and has two specialised arms: a small para-military force, the Vanuatu Mobile Force, and a maritime force, the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing.
The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) is the national police force of Solomon Islands and in January 2015 had an establishment of approximately 1,153 officers and 43 police stations across the country.
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.
HMPNGS Seeadler (P03) is one of four Pacific Forum patrol vessels operated by the Papua New-Guinea Defence Force.
RFNS Kula (201) is a Pacific Forum patrol boat operated by Fiji. She was designed and built by Australia. Australia agreed to provide twenty-two patrol boats to twelve of its neighbours and fellow members of the Pacific Forum, after the recently concluded United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea extended maritime nations' exclusive economic zone to 200 kilometres (110 nmi). Australia provided two other patrol vessels to Fiji, Kikau and Kiro. Australia also provided training and infrastructure.
RVS Tukoro is a Pacific Forum patrol boat that performs fishery protection, search and rescue and sovereignty patrols for Vanuatu. Tukoro is one of twenty-two small patrol vessels Australia designed and built for smaller fellow members of the Pacific Forum, after the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea extended control of a 200-kilometre (110 nmi) exclusive economic zone for all maritime nations.
RFNS Kiro (203) was one of three Pacific Forum patrol boats operated by Fiji. She was the last of the three to be launched, in May 1995, and the first to be retired, when she ran aground and was deemed unsalvable, in 2016.
RSIPV Lata is one of the Pacific Forum patrol boats Australia gave to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.
VOEA Neiafu (P201) was a Pacific Forum patrol vessel operated by Tonga since 1989. It was decommissioned in 2020.
Nafanua (04) is a Pacific Forum patrol vessel operated by Western Samoa's police. Like her 21 sister ships she was built in Australia. After the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas extended maritime nations' exclusive economic zones to 200 kilometres (110 nmi) Australia agreed to give its smaller neighbours in the Pacific Forum patrol vessels of their own, so they could police their own sovereignty. Nafanua is the ship Australia gave to Samoa.
RSIPV Gizo (05) is a Guardian-class patrol boat in service with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Maritime Department. She was the fifth boat of her class to be completed. Australian officials officially handed her over to representatives of the Solomon Islands on 8 November 2019, at the Austal shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia.
Mostyn Mangau is a senior police officer in the Solomon Islands.
RFNS Savenaca (401) is a Guardian-class patrol boat, being built in Australia for Fiji's Navy. She will replace RFNS Kula, a Pacific Forum patrol vessel provided by Australia in 1994. She will be the seventh vessel of the class to be completed, and the second of two to be delivered to Fiji. She will be commissioned in March or April of 2020.
RKS Teanoai II (301) is a Guardian-class patrol boat in service with the Kiribati Maritime Police. She was given to the Republic of Kiribati by Australia as part of the Pacific Maritime Security Program, in which Australia donates patrol boats to neighbouring Pacific Island nations in order to improve regional maritime security. She was the eighth boat of her class when launched in April 2020, but became the eleventh to be delivered due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She was officially handed over to the Kiribati police crew at the Austal shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia on 18 June 2021, replacing the 27-year-old Pacific-class patrol boat RKS Teanoai as the small island nation's sole maritime security craft.
VOEA Pangai (P202) was a Pacific Forum patrol vessel operated by Tonga.
RVS Takuare is a Guardian class patrol boat in service with the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing. She was given to Vanuatu by Australia as part of the Australian government's Pacific Maritime Security Program on 30 July 2021. Her predecessor, the RVS Tukoro, was the second vessel of the first iteration of the Pacific Patrol Boat Program, and served in the same role from 1987 to 2021. The Takuare is currently the only naval or law enforcement vessel operated by the Pacific Island nation.
The Pacific Maritime Security Program is a program initiated by Australia to aid the neighbouring Pacific Island nations, such as Timor-Leste, Fiji, Palau, Kiribati and Tonga. The program includes the maintenance of port facilities, training, and the transfer of 21 Guardian-class patrol boats. The program was initiated under the 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security.
RSIPF Maritime operate two Pacific Class Patrol Boats owned by the RSIPF, the Lata (03) and Auki (04) as well as a range of smaller vessels.
Commissioner Varley explains: "The new Guardian class of patrol boats will be much larger with increased capacity and extended range compared to the current Pacific class of patrol boats. This will be great especially for patrolling of Solomon Islands large maritime border."
The RSIPV Auki along with a second vessel, the RSIPV Lata, were gifted to the Solomon Island Government under the Australian Government's Pacific Patrol Boat Program. Australia also provides assistance for ongoing maintenance and logistics support for the patrol boats, as well as providing valuable training opportunities for maritime officers.
Work is underway to extend the wharf at the police maritime base at Point Cruz in preparation for the new patrol boat, which is at least 10 metres longer than the current ones.
In 2011 RSIPV LATA received an award of appreciation from the Australian Defence Department to the ship's company for 'the excellent maintenance' of the boat.
RSIPV Lata will be farewelled during a ceremony at the Maritime Aola base and will be sailed back to Australia on 12 September 2019.
The patrol boat Auki has been in Vanuatu to conduct a joint surveillance patrol with the Vanuatu patrol boat RVS Tukoro under the Niue Treaty Subsidiary Agreement between the two countries as well as assist the Vanuatu Government during their National General Election (NGE) last week.
The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) yesterday (4 March 2021) decommissioned the Patrol Boat AUKI after 30 years of service in Solomon Islands.
THE Australian Government will provide Solomon Islands with its sixth brand-new Guardian-class Patrol Boat named RSIPV Taro in May.