''Te Kukupa II'' is a built in Australia for the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , langu ...

. It replaced the original , supplied to the Cook Islands three decades earlier. Her crew is drawn from the Cook Islands Police Service. Australia supplied 22 s to 12 of its smaller Pacific Forum allies when 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 ...

established that maritime nations controlled an economic exclusion zone off their coasts.

Design

Australia designed the vessels 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, rather than cutting edge military grade components, to make it easier to maintain the vessels in small, isolated shipyards. The vessels have a maximum speed of , and have a complement of approximately 20 crewmembers. They are able to launch and retrieve a pursuit boat from a

stern launching ramp Some modern patrol vessels are equipped with a stern launching ramp, for deploying smaller rescue or pursuit boats without requiring the parent ship to first come to a halt. Typically the smaller craft are powered by water-jets, and can driv ...

without requiring bringing the vessel to a halt.

Operational history

''Te Kukupa II'' was launched in January 2022. It was formally handed over to the Cook Islands at a ceremony on 9 June 2022, and arrived in

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

on 20 July 2022. In August 2022 it transported covid-19 vaccines to

Palmerston Island Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean about northwest of Rarotonga. James Cook landed there on 16 June 1774. Overview Palmerston Island is one of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of coral ...

References

2022 ships Ships of the Cook Islands Guardian class patrol vessels {{ship-stub