HMTSS ''Te Mataili II'' (802) is the second completed, and the first to be given to the small

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

nation

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( or ; formerly known as the Ellice Islands) is an island country and microstate in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia. They lie east-northeast ...

. She was commissioned on 5 April 2019, replacing , a

Pacific Forum patrol vessel The Pacific class (also known as the Pacific Forum classToppan & Walsh, ''World Navies Today: Other Asia-Pacific Navies'' and the ASI 315 class) is a class of 22 patrol boats built by Australia and donated to twelve South Pacific countries. Th ...

, that had reached the end of her designed lifetime.

Background

Following the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

extension of maritime nations' exclusive economic zones to , Australia agreed to provide twelve of its neighbours with twenty-two Pacific Forum-class patrol vessels, so they could exercise sovereignty over their own territory using their own resources. The first vessel was delivered in 1987, and in 2015 Australia announced plans to replace the original patrol boats with larger and more capable vessels.

Design

Australian ship builder Austal won the $335 million

Australian dollar The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island s ...

contract for the project, and built the vessels at its

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada *He ...

shipyard, near Perth. Guardian-class vessels were designed to use

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

components, not cutting edge, military grade equipment, to make them easier to maintain in small isolated shipyards. The vessels are long, can travel at . Their maximum speed is . Their design allows the recipient nations to mount a pair of heavy machine guns, on either flank, and possibly an autocannon of up to 30 mm, on the foredeck.

Operational career

In July 2019,

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...

Seleganui Fusi, commanding officer of the ''Te Mataili II'', hosted a delegation from

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

, letting them prepare for the arrival of their patrol vessels.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Te Mataili II (802) Ships of Tuvalu Te Mataili 2018 ships