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Fiji’s new Guardian Class patrol boat has been loaded with supplies, thanks to a delivery from a C-130J Hercules and crew from Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley.
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The No. 37 Squadron Hercules delivered a shore-side generator and operating supplies in early May to help prepare the patrol boat RFNS Savenaca for additional tasks resulting from COVID-19.
The cargo also included humanitarian stores as Australia continues to assist Fiji during the recovery from Tropical Cyclone Harold.
This contributes to the Australian government’s Pacific Maritime Security Program, which helps Fiji’s enforcement against transnational crime and illegal fishing, as well as performing search and rescue duty for those in need.
Group Captain Nicholas Hogan, Officer Commanding No. 84 Wing, said this support helped Fiji greatly.
“Many of our regional neighbours have responsibility for policing massive areas of the Pacific,” GPCAPT Hogan said.
“The generator delivered by our Hercules assists Fiji to continue enforcing its maritime sovereignty under varying and more demanding circumstances.”
Special precautions were put in place by No. 37 Squadron to minimise the risk of COVID-19.
“The parking space available at Nausori Airport meant the Hercules was the right size to deliver the generator,” GPCAPT Hogan said.
“We planned and executed this mission within the constraints of international COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“The crew undertook pre-flight and in-flight precautions and minimised time on the ground to deliver this important cargo before returning to Australia.”
Australia handed over Savenaca, the newest Guardian Class patrol boat to Fiji, at a ceremony on 6 March 2020 at Austal Shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia.
Faster, with improved seakeeping, better amenities and an enhanced mission capability – including an integrated stern launch and recovery system – the Guardian Class patrol boat provide the Fiji Navy with a much improved naval asset to carry out border patrols, regional policing, search and rescue and many other operations domestically and internationally.
The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project was awarded to Austal in May 2016, with an additional contract option awarded in April 2018, taking the program to 21 vessels valued at more than $335 million.
Thirteen Pacific island nations – Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Timor Leste – will receive the vessels through to 2023.
