Defence

Strategy Group

Helping our Pacific neighbours protect vital assets

By Andy Anderson

Activities during Operation Island Chief in the Federated States of Micronesia.

In the 20 years since the contract was let for the first Pacific Class patrol boats, the program has expanded to be one of Australia's longest running and most effective regional assistance initiatives.

The Pacific Patrol Boat Program (PPBP) now covers 22 vessels in 12 countries.

Assisting Pacific Island nations to protect their maritime territories is a major strategic engagement activity, managed by Strategy Group's International Policy Division.

The patrol boats have been maintained through a series of refits, while a network of 30 Royal Australian Navy personnel posted throughout the region provide technical advice and maritime surveillance training.

"The vessels are used to detect illegal activity such as unlicenced fishing and smuggling.activities that can deprive Pacific Island countries of significant amounts of revenue," says Brigadier Paul Symon, Director General Pacific, within International Policy.

"In addition to surveillance and enforcement of economic zones, the boats are designed to handle other tasks such as police patrols, immigration, quarantine, disaster relief and search and rescue."

"The vessels are contributing to nation building, in addition to national resource protection, and these are both important international engagement outcomes."

Australia provides further assistance by conducting aerial patrols using Royal Australian Air Force P3C Orions. The aerial surveillance complements activities undertaken by the Pacific Class Patrol Boats.

The aerial and surface operations are coordinated with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency to make the surveillance process as effective as possible.

The most recent aerial patrols were conducted during early August, over the territorial waters of Vanuatu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and the Solomon Islands.

Other countries operating Pacific Class Patrol Boats are Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Palau.

Pacific Patrol Boat crews and their supporting elements are demonstrating a growing capacity to conduct effective maritime surveillance operations. Defence is now encouraging regional cooperative surveillance arrangements. The sharing of assets, information and training opportunities has already been a success with the increased prosecution of illegal activity and improved compliance returns by licenced operators in the region.

Three very successful multilateral operations involving Pacific Class Patrol Boats have been held this year. They were:

• Operation Big Eye held between the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands and Palau;
• Operation Kuru Kuru, involving Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Tuvalu;
• Operation Tui Moana, held between Cook Islands and Samoa.

The United States Navy, New Zealand and Australia provided aerial surveillance support to those operations, which were partly funded under International Policy's Defence Cooperation Program.

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