Good progress is being made on the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement (PPR-B) programme, with the first vessel slated for Papua New Guinea on schedule for delivery in October 2018.
Speaking to Shephard at the Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney, Brett Reed, Austal’s technical sales manager - defence, said boats would be successively delivered every three months, and four hulls would be under construction at any one time.
Reed explained that a lot of effort went into improving safety aspects of the new patrol boats, including the work deck and boat recovery systems. The new design has a