Nafanua III at Austal shipyards in February 2023. | |
History | |
---|---|
Samoa | |
Name | Nafanua III |
Namesake | Nafanua |
Operator | Samoan Police Force |
Ordered | 2 November 2022 |
Builder | Austal |
Cost | A$15.2 million [1] |
Yard number | 542 |
Acquired | 22 November 2023 |
In service | 2024 |
Homeport | Apia |
Identification | |
Status | Delivered |
General characteristics | |
Type | Patrol boat |
Length | 39.5 m (129 ft 7 in) |
Beam | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
Draught | 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) |
Propulsion | 2 × Caterpillar 3516C diesels, 2 shafts |
Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Range | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Complement | 23 |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Armament | Australia provides the ships without armament, but they are designed to be able to mount heavy machine guns, or an autocannon of up to 30 mm on the foredeck |
Nafanua III (04) is a Guardian-class patrol boat entering[ needs update ] 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. [3] 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. [4] [5] Although she was ordered as the 22nd and ultimate boat of her class, she was delivered on 22 November 2023 as the 18th. [6] [7]
Following the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Pacific Islands nations found themselves in need of capable yet economical vessels to patrol their exclusive economic zones (EEZs), which had been extended under the convention to 200 kilometres (108 nmi). In an effort to improve regional maritime security as well as diplomatic relations with the island states, the Australian government launched the Pacific Patrol Boat Program in 1983, in which they would build and gift 22 Pacific-class patrol boats to 12 Pacific Island nations over the next 14 years. [8] The patrol boats were built with commercial off-the-shelf-components in order to ease maintenance costs for the island nations. Australia remained involved with maintaining the class for the next three decades, with a refit after 15 years of operation.
Nafanua was launched in 1988 and delivered to Western Samoa. She departed Samoa on 13 June 2019 to be decommissioned in Australia. [4]
The Australian government announced the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project on 17 June 2014. [9] A contract for the construction of at least 19 boats and an initial seven-year maintenance and support period was signed with Austal on 4 May 2016. [10] [11] [12] The keel of the first vessel was laid on 30 July 2017, before she was launched on 30 May 2018. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Nafanua II was the fourth boat of the program, delivered on 16 August 2019, [17] [18] and commissioned on 16 October. [19] [20]
On 5 August 2021 Nafanua II ran aground on a reef near Salelologa wharf while transporting police officers to Savai'i to manage a protest. [21] Australian specialists loaded her onto a barge and transported her to Cairns for assessment. She was found to be beyond economical repair, and given back to Australia for disposal. [22] On 21 December 2021 the officer-in-charge of the boat at the time of the accident, Superintendent Taito Sefo Faaoi Hunt, was found guilty on three charges of negligence by a Police disciplinary tribunal. [23] On 4 January he was fined $2000 Samoan tālā and demoted from superintendent to corporal. [24]
During a visit to Apia in June 2022, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that Australia will build an additional vessel to replace Nafanua II. [25] [26] Austal announced that the order for the 22nd patrol boat had been placed on 2 November 2022. [1] [27]
The Guardian class uses a steel monohull design based on that of the Bay class, which had been in service with the Australian Border Force since 1999. [10] [28] The patrol boats are 39.5 metres (129 ft 7 in) long with two habitable internal decks below the bridge. [8] They are capable of traveling 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), and have a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). They have two Caterpillar 3516C 2,000- kilowatt (2,700 hp ) diesel engines powering two fixed-pitch propellers. [12] [29] A key design goal being ease of maintenance to accommodate small and isolated shipyards, the class uses commercial off-the-shelf components. [12]
In addition to the commanding officer's quarters, the boats have seven living quarters designed to berth 20 crew members. Three of them are staterooms that have their own showers in order to accommodate a mixed-sex crew. They also have a sick bay with a separate ventilation system, which during normal operations is used as two berths, bringing the total complement up to 23. [8] [30]
The vessels have a stern launching ramp for a WRH635 fast rescue boat. [8] [12] [28] [31] These are SOLAS-certified rigid-hulled inflatable boats designed to carry up to 15 persons. They are 6.35 metres (20 ft 10 in) long, with two Yamaha 67 kW (90 hp) outboard motors and an operational weight of 2,612.5 kilograms (5,760 lb). [32] [33] The stern is also equipped with a port side crane serving a 16-square-metre (170 sq ft) cargo deck. [12] [29]
Australia instructed that the boats would be delivered without armament, but they were designed to be capable of mounting an autocannon of up to 30 millimetres (1.2 in) on their foredeck, and a 0.50-calibre machine gun both port and starboard in front of the bridge. [8]
In June 2022, three design flaws were reported in the media. This included cracking in the coupling between the engine and the gear box, the sick bay ventilation system recirculating air and an exhaust leak causing carbon monoxide to enter the normally non-crewed engine compartment. [34] [35] [36]
Nafanua III was delivered to Defence Australia by Austal, and handed over to the Samoan Police Service at HMAS Stirling on 22 November 2023. [7] [37] [38] Her new crew arrived in Henderson in September to prepare for the voyage to Samoa, where she is likely to arrive in January 2024. [6] [5] [38]
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The Armidale class is a class of patrol boats built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for a class of vessels to replace the fifteen Fremantle-class patrol boats began in 1993 as a joint project with the Royal Malaysian Navy, but was cancelled when Malaysia pulled out of the process. The project was reopened in 1999 under the designation SEA 1444, with the RAN as the sole participant. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal/Defence Maritime Services (DMS) proposal for twelve vessels based on an enlarged Bay-class patrol boat was selected. Two additional boats were ordered in 2005 to provide a dedicated patrol force for the North West Shelf Venture.
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 Samoa Police Service is the unitary national police force of Samoa.
The Tuvalu Police Force is the national Police force of Tuvalu, it is headquartered in Funafuti and includes a Maritime Surveillance Unit, Customs, Prisons and Immigration. Police officers wear British style uniforms.
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 Ted Diro (P401) was the first Guardian-class patrol boat to be completed. Australia designed and provided four Pacific Forum-class patrol vessels to Papua New Guinea in 1987 and 1988, and in 2015 confirmed she would be replacing those vessels with four larger, and more capable, Guardian-class vessels.
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 (EEZs) 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 extended EEZs. Nafanua is the ship Australia gave to Samoa.
HMTSS Te Mataili (801) was a Pacific Forum-class patrol vessel provided by Australia to Tuvalu, and operated by the Tuvalu Police Force. Tuvalu has a 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi) exclusive economic zone, and Te Mataili was its sole long range patrol vessel, until it was retired, and replaced by the larger and more modern Te Mataili II.
Nafanua II (04) was a Guardian-class patrol boat built in Australia for Samoa. It replaced the original Nafanua, supplied to Samoa three decades earlier. Her crew were drawn from the Samoan Police Force.
HMTSS Te Mataili II (802) is the second Guardian-class patrol boat completed, and the first to be given to the small Pacific Ocean nation Tuvalu. She was commissioned on 5 April 2019, replacing Te Mataili, a Pacific Forum patrol vessel, that had reached the end of her designed lifetime.
PSS Remeliik II is a Guardian-class patrol boat in the service of Palau's Division of Maritime Law Enforcement, built, and provided by Australia to replace the Pacific Forum patrol boat PSS Remeliik. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Australia helped its smaller neighbours, in the Pacific Forum by building small patrol boats so they could protect their own sovereignty. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), had extended an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 200 kilometres (120 mi) off the shores of all maritime nations, and for small Island nations in the Pacific protecting their EEZ would be an overwhelming problem.
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.
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.
The Republic of Fiji Navy or Fijian Navy is the naval branch of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. Formerly known as the Royal Fijian Navy, it was established after Fiji ratified the recently created 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention established that maritime nations had an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 kilometres, which extended Fiji's waters twentyfold, from 50,000 square miles (130,000 km2) to over 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 km2), necessitating a more substantial naval force to enforce Fijian jurisdiction and protect economic activity in the Fijian EEZ.
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 of Tonga, operated by the Tonga Maritime Force.
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.
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.
RFNS Puamau (402) is a Guardian-class patrol boat donated to Fiji by Australia as part of the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project. The vessel entered service on 7 March 2024. The ship is used to patrol Fijian waters.
Australian Government has ordered an additional Guardian-class Patrol Boat from Austal Australia for A$15.2 million.
NAFANUA III is at West Australia reported 1 min ago by AIS.
Next year Fiji, Palau, Kiribati and Tonga will receive their boats. Following this, a new patrol boat will be delivered approximately every three months until 2023. Australia has committed $2bn to the program over the next 30 years.
Nafanua has been serving Samoa for 31 years, providing maritime border security, search and rescue, and monitoring of illegal fishing.
In an interview with Deputy Police Commissioner Papalii Monalisa Tiai-Keti, she stated that the handover of the vessel is anticipated to take place in Australia later this year, and added that it will arrive in the country in early 2024.
Samoa's replacement Guardian-class patrol boat Nafanua III will be ready for acceptance in Australia in November this year and set for the voyage home in January next year.
The vessel, Nafanua III, was accepted by representatives from the Department of Defence and then gifted by the Australian Government, to the Samoa Police Service at a handover ceremony held at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia on 22 November 2023.
The Pacific Patrol Boats are gifted by Australia as sovereign assets, and have enabled Pacific Island countries to take an active role in securing their own borders and resources – to the benefit of the region overall. The PPBs are used to undertake a wide range of tasks, from fisheries enforcement, to Search and rescue, to movement of ballot boxes.
under the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project (SEA3036-1), part of the Australian Government's Pacific Maritime Security Program; and replaces the RVS Tukoro, a Pacific-class Patrol Boat delivered in 1987.Alt URL
As part of the $280 million (ex-GST) contract Austal will design and construct the first 19 vessels in Henderson, securing more than 120 jobs for Western Australia.
The new 'Guardian' class patrol boats will come to replace the 12 Pacific Island nations' ageing 'Pacific' class patrol boats, which had been gifted by Australia under the PPB programme implemented in 1983. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery to Papua New Guinea, who will receive a total of four patrol boats, by October 2018 and the last vessel is scheduled for delivery by 2023.
Another milestone has been reached in Australia's continuous naval shipbuilding program with a ceremonial keel laying for the first new Pacific Patrol Boat.
The first of a new fleet of patrol boats destined for Australia's Pacific neighbours has been launched by Australian shipbuilder Austal.
Austal [...] today announced the first of 21 Guardian Class, Pacific Patrol Boats (PPB-R) has been launched just two years after the contract was awarded, keeping with the schedule and budget for the project. [...] with a further contract awarded in April 2018 for two additional vessels for AU$29.7 million.
Austal [...] is pleased to announce the on-time delivery of the fourth Guardian Class Patrol Boat (GCPB) to the [AU DoD]. The vessel was today gifted by the Government of Australia to the Government of Samoa during a handover ceremony at Austal's Henderson shipyard, attended by the Samoan Deputy Prime Minister the Hon. Flame Naomi Mata'afe and Commissioner of Police, Mr Fuiavailili Egon Lincoln Keil. Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon. Melissa Price MP, represented the Government of Australia.
The Australian Government has today handed over the newest Guardian-class Patrol Boat Nafanua II to the Samoan Government at a ceremony in Henderson, Western Australia. Nafanua II was received by Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister the Honourable Fiame Naomi Mata'afa and the Commissioner of Police Mr Fuivaili'ili Egon Keil.
The $US30 million guardian class boat arrived at Matautu wharf on Friday.
The new Police Patrol Boat – Nafanua II was commissioned in a brief ceremony yesterday. The ceremony was officiated by the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi [...] The welcoming of the new $30million tala "Guardian Class Patrol Boat – Nafanua II" is essential to the protection of our blue Pacific,
Samoa launched a commission of inquiry after the two-year-old vessel ran aground, and has since left a big hole in the country's maritime surveillance capabilities.
And I was pleased to advise the Prime Minister today that we would announce today a replacement Guardian-class patrol boat to replace the Nafanua II. I know that this will occur in about, next year [...]
Austal will design, construct and deliver the 19 steel-hulled patrol boats (valued at $280 million) to 12 Pacific Island nations. The contract includes an option for two additional vessels.
The change rooms are a necessary addition because in August 2019, the wing will receive an Australian government-funded Guardian Class Patrol Boat, which will be used by both male and female police.
They are capable of operating in Sea State 4 and are equipped with a "game changing" stern-launched zodiac (inflatable boarding vessel), which is a first for both the PNG and the Australian navy.
The WRH635FRB [...] developed as a 15 persons Fast Rescue Boat for Survey and Stand-By vessels. [...] Overall length: 6.35 m Overall width: 2.80 m [...] Weight operational (including 15 persons and 2 x 90 HP engine): 2.612,5 kg
11 March. FSS Tosiwo Nakayama is one of two 39.5m-long Guardian-class boats destined for the Federated States of Micronesia under the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project. Each Guardian-class vessel carries a fast rescue boat powered by two 90hp Yamaha outboard motors, deployed and retrieved by a launch and recovery system fitted at the stern. The vessels are also armed with a 30mm calibre gun along with optional 0.50cal general-purpose machine guns.
Vanuatu's patrol boat RVS Takuare remains docked at the SinoVan wharf in Port Vila where it has been since the second week of June because of an engine defect. [...] was producing carbon monoxide, and black smoke could be seen on the covering of the exhaust. The commander said he didn't want to risk continuing using the Takuare because the emissions could harm the team in the engine room
Pacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program. [...] medical bay in the vessel uses recirculated air, rather than fresh air. [...] fault in the exhaust system. It is understood carbon monoxide was entering a compartment.
Technical faults have been reported in patrol boats being donated by Australia to its Pacific neighbours. Austal Australia is building 22 Guardian-class patrol boats for Pacific nations, but faults have been identified that have seen a number of vessels awaiting rectification. The chief problem relates to the type's exhaust system.
The Nafanua III was officially received by the Hon Harry Jeffrey, Minister for Police and Prisons and Auapaau Logotino Filipo, Police Commissioner on behalf of the Samoan Government at a ceremony in Perth.