Austal Australia has delivered a new Guardian-class patrol boat to the Australian Department of Defence (DOD).
The 39.5-metre, steel-hulled vessel was then formally handed over to the Kiribati government, which will operate it as a police patrol boat under the name RKS Teanoai II.
Teanoai II is the 11th Guardian-class patrol boat to be built and the first to be handed over to Kiribati. It will replace a similarly named patrol boat that has been operating with the Kiribati Police Service since 1994.
The vessel was built by Austal under the DOD's Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project, which seeks to supply newbuild patrol boats to 12 of Australia's Pacific island neighbours.
