HENDERSON, Australia (BulgarianMilitary.com), 10 August 2018, Editor: Stanislava Georgieva, Photo credit: YouTube

The sea testing of the first Guardian-class Pacific Patrol Boat (PPB-R) has begun. That was announced by the Australian shipbuilding company Austal, on 8 August, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

The building of the boat is part of the programme of a regional security strategy, planning to donate 21 Pacific Patrol Boats to 12 nearby Pacific Island nations, including Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

Read more: The First of 21 Guardian Class PPBs of Austal Is Launched

The company announced the start of the PPB-R sea trials, as part of the celebrations for their 30th anniversary of successfull delivered shipbuilding programs.

In May 2016, the contract for the designing and the building of The Pacific Patrol Boat, was awarded to Austal. Initially, it was valued AU$305 million for 19 vessels associated in-service support. But in April 208, Austal were awarded another AU$29.7 million contract for two additional PPB-R boats. Two years after the first contract, in May, this year, Austal announced the launch of the first PPB-R vessel. It is supposed the first delivery to be in late October 2018 to Papua New Guinea.

Austal CEO, David Singleton said that he is extremely proud of the PPB-R project, because it expanded the capabilities of the shipbuilder, by offering to their present and potential customers steel vessels, except aluminium ones. He defined the programme as a testament to Austral abilities, experience and management that every stage of the programme has been achieved on-time and on-budget.

He also said “We could not have had a better way to celebrate Austal’s 30th birthday, than by successfully meeting another milestone in the PPB-R program. The PPB-R program is a reflection of Austal’s 30 years in designing and building next-generation technologically advanced vessels. As a company the continuing investment in our operations, our facilities and our people has been critical to our success”

In his statement, he also noted that for their thirty years, Austral headquarters in Western Australia have designed and built more than 300 vessels for commercial and defense purposes, within more than 100 operations in 54 countries, such as the United States, the Philippines and China.

About Austal

Australian shipbuilder, that specializes in design, building and maintenance of defense and commercial vessels. Their production include specialist utility vessels: crew transfer and offshore windfarm vessels, naval vessels, high-speed passenger and vehicle ferries. The company also is a prime contractror.

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