RSIPV ''Lata'' is one of the Pacific Forum patrol boats

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

gave to the

Royal Solomon Islands Police Force The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) is the national police force of Solomon Islands and in January 2015 had an establishment of approximately 1,153 officers and 43 police stations across the country. Solomon Islands has no military o ...

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 treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...

extending maritime nations'

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

s to , Australia agreed to design, build, and donate patrol vessels to twelve of its fellow members of the Pacific Forum so they could police and extend sovereignty to their exclusive economic zones using their own resources. Australia also helped build bases for the vessels, provide training, and help with maintenance.

Design

Australia designed the vessels using

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 ...

equipment instead of cutting-edge, high-performance, military grade equipment, to ease the maintenance burden for their smaller neighbours.

Operational history

According to the '' Nautilus Institute,'' Malaitan militias commandeered ''Lata'' in June 2000, and used it to attack Guadalcanal villages and bombard

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lies ...

, capital of the Solomon Islands.

Australian Foreign Minister The Minister for Foreign Affairs, also known as the Foreign Minister, is the minister of state of the Commonwealth of Australia charged with overseeing the creation and implementation of international diplomacy, relations and foreign affairs po ...

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

inspected ''Lata'', and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

, on a visit to Honiara in August 2012. In February and March 2017 ''Lata'' engaged in a joint fishery protection operation with her

from

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

, . In April 2018

Marise Payne Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1997 until 2023, representing the Liberal Party. She held senior ministerial office in Coalition governments between 2013 and 2022, inclu ...

, Australian Minister of Defence, inspected ''Lata'', during a visit to Honiara.

Replacement

Australia replaced ''Lata'' with the RSIPV ''Gizo'' a larger and more capable , on November 8, 2019. Her sister ship, ''Auki'' is scheduled to be replaced in 2022 or 2023. ''Lata'' was officially decommissioned at Aola Base, Point Cruz in

, on September 11, 2019. She then proceeded to Australia for recycling.

References

External links

* {{commonscat-inline, RSIPV Lata

Lata Latha (Hindi: लता, Kannada: ಲತಾ) is a Hindu Indian female given name, which means "creeper" and "Durga". Latha may refer to: Notable people named Lata *Lata Mangeshkar (1929–2022), Indian singer. *Lata Bhatt (born 1954), Indian sin ...

1988 ships