Page 92 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

92 SEAPOWER PATROL BOATS
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
the new vessels are faster, more economical, with improved seakeeping and onboard amenities, and greater operational capability for carrying out border patrols, regional policing and search and rescue.
BUILD PROGRAM
Six years into the program, 14 Guardian-class patrol boats have been successfully delivered to 10 Pacific nations.
Most recently, the 14th boat was delivered to the Feder- ated States of Micronesia on 11 March.
Matthew Klingberg, Austal Australia’s Senior Program Manager – Defence, told ADM that Austal employs a staged modular manufacturing approach to maximise ef-
says that maintaining a consistent production team has meant that Austal has seen the build program grow more efficient over its period, even in light of supply chain and personnel challenges faced during COVID-19.
“We’re on what we call a drumbeat of delivering every three months, so four boats a year – that’s quite a high tem- po. So, the challenge that we’ve set for our team is – how do you keep improving?” he said. “Something we’ve been successful at is continuing to reduce our production man hours for each boat, to maintain that tempo and achieve cost efficiency. We want the same people doing the same work where possible time and time again so that we keep getting those one per cent improvements.”
Klingberg reports that the Guardian patrol boats already in operation have so far been performing well in service – the new integrated RHIB stern launch and recovery system in particular has proven to be successful in enhancing mis- sion capability.
“There have been probably two main step changes, one in capability and one in comfort,” Klingberg said. “Firstly, the stern launch and recovery system has proven to be very effective. Anecdotally, boats might have only been doing 20 to 30 boarding operations a year and now they’re doing 20 to 30 boarding operations a month. And that’s primarily a function of the stern launch and recovery, which was a new initiative.
“And then another big improvement is crew comfort,” he continued. “We understood who our customer was and made sure the accommodation arrangements were suit- able. And what’s also pleasing is that this boat is allowing mixed-gender crews to be operating throughout the Pacif- ic and that’s something that wasn’t possible with the old boats. So, we’ve seen a lot of female crew members coming through as part of the training teams which is progressive for the Pacific.”
Klingberg says Austal is particularly proud of the pro- gram for its demonstration of true sovereign capability.
“UNDER THE PMSP, AUSTRALIA IS DELIVERING 21 GUARDIAN-CLASS PATROL BOATS TO 12 PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES AND TIMOR-LESTE BETWEEN 2018 AND 2023”
ficiency, with up to five vessels in various stages of construction at any given time at Austal’s dedicated construction facility at Naval Base in Western Australia and Global HQ in Henderson.
“We’re delivering boat number 14 in a couple weeks’ time on 11 March,” Klingberg told ADM at the time of writing in early March. “Then we’ve also got boat number 15 on the water, just about to com- mence sea trials, and another three boats in production at our Hope
Valley Road facility – so four to five boats in production at any one time.
“The build program, despite the challenges of COVID-19, is progressing well. The dates that we’re delivering to were set back in 2016, so to be some six years later still deliv- ering to those dates is probably unique across shipbuild- ing programs. I’m sure that plenty of other programs, even around the world, would be envious of that achievement.”
There are somewhere near 200-250 people involved in the Guardian-class program at any one time. Klingberg
LEFT: The PNGDF celebrated the commissioning of its second Guardian-Class Patrol Boat, HMPNGS Rochus Lokinap in October 2021
DEFENCE