Australia gifts Guardian-class patrol vessel to Fiji
The Royal Australian Navy gifted a newly built patrol boat to the government of Fiji on 6 March, in a ceremony at shipbuilder Austal’s Henderson shipyard.
RFNS Savenaca is the sixth Guardian-class built by Austal, and the first to be delivered to a Pacific island nation on behalf of the Australian government.
Austal CEO David Singleton said: ‘the Pacific Boat Replacement Project [PPB-R] has really hit its stride, with this sixth Guardian-class Patrol Boat benefiting from a number of innovative production processes that have reduced production time, while maintaining quality.’
The A$335 million ($222.5m) PPB-R contract was awarded to Austal in May 2016, covering construction of 21 vessels. The boats are destined for delivery to the following Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
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