 Lata at Townsville Harbour for maintenance | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Solomon Islands | |
| Name | Lata |
| Operator | Royal Solomon Islands Police Force |
| Launched | 1988 |
| Decommissioned | September 11, 2019 |
| Identification |
|
| Status | decommissioned |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Pacific Forum-class patrol boat |
| Displacement | 162 tons |
| Length | 103 ft (31 m) |
RSIPV Lata 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 donate patrol vessels to twelve of its fellow members of the Pacific Forum 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 using commercial off-the-shelf equipment instead of cutting-edge, high-performance, military grade equipment, to ease the maintenance burden for their smaller neighbours. [3]
According to the Nautilus Institute, Malaitan militias commandeered Lata in June 2000, and used it to attack Guadalcanal villages and bombard Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands. [4]
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr inspected Lata, and her sister ship Auki, on a visit to Honiara in August 2012. [5]
In February and March 2017 Lata engaged in a joint fishery protection operation with her sister ship from Vanuatu, RVS Tukoro. [6]
In April 2018 Marise Payne, Australian Minister of Defence, inspected Lata, during a visit to Honiara. [7]
Australia replaced Lata with the RSIPV Gizo a larger and more capable Guardian-class patrol boat, on November 8, 2019. [2] [8] Her sister ship, Auki is scheduled to be replaced in 2022 or 2023.
Lata was officially decommissioned at Aola Base, Point Cruz in Honiara, on September 11, 2019. [9] [10] She then proceeded to Australia for recycling. [11]
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in the Melanesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. This page is about the history of the nation state rather than the broader geographical area of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which covers both Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, a province of Papua New Guinea. For the history of the archipelago not covered here refer to the former administration of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, the North Solomon Islands and the History of Bougainville.
Communications in the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons, is an island 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 west, Australia to the southwest, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the southeast, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and Tuvalu to the east, and Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia to the north. It has a total area of 28,896 square kilometres, and a population of 734,887 according to the official estimates for mid 2023. Its capital and largest city, 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. The vessels were constructed between 1985 and 1997 and are operated by the militaries, coast guards or police forces of the 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.
HMAS Maryborough, named after the city of Maryborough, Queensland, is one of fourteen Armidale-class patrol boats operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
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.
Kakabona (Kakambona) is a peri-urban suburb on the fringe of Honiara, Solomon Islands and is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of the main center and west of White River on the Tandai Highway. Kakabona borders the Honiara City Council ward of Nggosi. Refugees from Bouganville settled following the conflict.
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.
The Pacific Islands Forum's Forum Fisheries Agency maintains a Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre in Honiara, Solomon Islands. In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea gave all maritime nations, including the smaller Pacific Ocean nations, 200-nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Monitoring their EEZs is a challenge for some of the smaller nations, where their maritime zones dwarf their landmass, making cooperation essential.
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 established that all maritime nations were entitled to exercise control over a 200-kilometre exclusive economic zone.
RSIPV Auki 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 from 1989 until its decommissioning in 2020.
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, built in Australia for Fiji's Navy. She replaced 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 was commissioned in April 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.
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.
Nafanua III (04) is a Guardian-class patrol boat entering service with the Samoan Police Force. She was given to Samoa by Australia as part of the Pacific Maritime Security Program, in which Australia donates patrol boats to neighbouring Pacific Island nations to improve regional maritime security. She is the 2nd boat given to Samoa under the program, as she was ordered by Australia on 2 November 2022 as a replacement for her sister ship Nafanua II, which was damaged beyond repair when she ran aground on 5 August 2021. Nafanua II had only two years earlier replaced the 31-year-old Pacific-class patrol boat Nafanua as the small island nation's sole maritime security craft. Although she was ordered as the 22nd and ultimate boat of her class, she was delivered on 22 November 2023 as the 18th.
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 Defence Co-operation Program became controversial through the 1990s with Australian supplied patrol boats and helicopters used for the blockade of Bougainville. Australian military aid to the PNGDF in the early limited the ways in which Australia was perceived as an honest broker in ending the conflict. In June 2000, the Australian-supplied patrol boat Lata in Solomon Islands was also used by Malaitan militias to attack Guadalcanal villages.
While visiting Solomon Islands recently, the Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr took the time to inspect the two Pacific Patrol Boats, Lata and Auki.
RSIPV LATA, commanded by Staff Sergeant Harold Reggie, teamed with Republic of Vanuatu Ship (RVS) TUKORO, commanded by Superintendent Eddie Kalokul of the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing, to lead a surveillance mission encompassing the south eastern section of Vanuatu's EEZ.
Senator Payne also visited the RSIPF Maritime Division where she was taken on board the RSIPFV Lata to be briefed on the recent operations which the Australian funded patrol boat was involved in when patrolling Solomon Islands Maritime border.
The Australian Government has today handed over the latest Guardian-class Patrol Boat RSIPV Gizo to the Solomon Islands at a ceremony in Henderson, Western Australia.
RSIPV Lata will be farewelled during a ceremony at the Maritime Aola base and will be sailed back to Australia on 12 September 2019.
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.
Media related to RSIPV Lata at Wikimedia Commons