Trinidad und Tobago

High Speed Caribbean Patrol Boats Com­plet­ed

Austal deliv­ers six-ves­sel fleet to Trinidad and Toba­go Coast Guard 

Mar­itime secu­ri­ty in the Caribbean region has been bol­stered with the deliv­ery of six high speed alu­mini­um patrol craft for the Trinidad and Toba­go Coast Guard (TTCG).

Capa­ble of speeds greater than 40 knots and armed with gen­er­al pur­pose machine guns and a 20mm can­non, the 30 metre ves­sels — designed and built by Aus­tralian ship­builder Austal — will expand the TTCG’s sur­veil­lance and enforce­ment capa­bil­i­ty in the region. 

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One of six high speed patrol boats for the Trinidad and Toba­go Coast Guard
Source: Austal

The on-sched­ule, on-bud­get deliv­ery of the fleet was achieved less than two years from the ini­tial order, with the final ves­sels arriv­ing in Trinidad and Toba­go via heavy lift ship on Jan­u­ary 18. 

Direc­tor of Trinidad’s Defence Trans­for­ma­tion and Inte­gra­tion Sec­re­tari­at, CDRE Gar­net Best, said the ves­sels would be used to cre­ate a secu­ri­ty blan­ket around the waters of Trinidad and Tobago. 

“We are con­fi­dent that the speed of the ves­sels will con­tribute to their effec­tive­ness in the inter­dic­tion of ille­gal drugs,” CDRE Best said. 

“These ves­sels have been very well designed to per­form numer­ous roles includ­ing cus­toms and immi­gra­tion bor­der con­trol, fire ser­vices and pris­on­er trans­port, pro­tec­tion of our marine envi­ron­ment as well as pro­tec­tion of our oil and gas resources.” 

As well as supe­ri­or manoeu­vra­bil­i­ty and speed, the patrol boats ben­e­fit from the reduced struc­tur­al weight, improved fuel econ­o­my and enhanced cor­ro­sion resis­tance that typ­i­fies Austal’s alu­mini­um platforms. 

Austal is now set to deliv­er a five-year com­pre­hen­sive main­te­nance and sup­port ser­vices pro­gram for the ves­sels as part of an addi­tion­al con­tract. Includ­ed in this will be sched­uled planned and pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance sup­port, unsched­uled main­te­nance, man­age­ment and per­for­mance of annu­al sur­veys and main­te­nance peri­ods, as well as shore based engi­neer­ing support. 

Austal Direc­tor – Sales and Aus­tralian Oper­a­tions, Andrew Bel­lamy, said the six-ves­sel fleet rein­forced not only Austal’s unique brand of high per­for­mance defence plat­forms but also the impor­tance of cus­tomised ves­sel sup­port packages. 

“These state-or-the-art patrol plat­forms will play an inte­gral role in mod­ernising Caribbean mar­itime secu­ri­ty,” Mr Bel­lamy said. 

“Ensur­ing that the right sup­port struc­tures are in place can be as impor­tant as the ves­sels them­selves. From pre-deliv­ery crew train­ing to ongo­ing ves­sel main­te­nance via our new­ly estab­lished ser­vice hub in Trinidad, Austal is pleased to be pro­vid­ing an all-inclu­sive sup­port pack­age to the TTCG.” 

The ves­sels are named “TTS Scar­let Ibis”, “TTS Hibis­cus”, “TTS Hum­ming Bird”, “TTS Cha­co­nia”, “TTS Poui” and “TTS Teak”. 

A com­pre­hen­sive crew train­ing pro­gram, facil­i­tat­ed by Austal at its West­ern Aus­tralian facil­i­ty, was also under­tak­en dur­ing the con­struc­tion process by more than 90 TTCG per­son­nel. Austal is cur­rent­ly deliv­er­ing fur­ther train­ing on-site in Trinidad. 

Ves­sel Review

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Two MTU 16V 2000 M92 diesel engines
Source: Austal

The Austal 30 metre fast patrol plat­form mix­es high speed with high endurance and is designed for supe­ri­or sea keep­ing and oper­a­tion in up to Sea State 6 con­di­tions. Their light but strong hard chine, deep “V” mono­hull deliv­ers manoeu­vra­bil­i­ty, dura­bil­i­ty, speed and a draft of only 1.5 metres. 

Propul­sion con­sists of two Kame­wa 56A3 water­jets fea­tur­ing advanced mixed flow pump geom­e­try, deliv­er­ing high­er speeds, low­er fuel con­sump­tion, and the capa­bil­i­ty to oper­ate in shal­low debris-laden water. Advanced elec­tron­ic con­trols enable the Cap­tain to manoeu­vre the ves­sel with a high lev­el of pre­ci­sion at high and low speeds. 

Pow­er­ing these are two MTU 16V 2000 M92 diesel engines, designed specif­i­cal­ly for patrol craft with low load fac­tors that require a high per­for­mance rat­ing. Each engine pro­duces 1630kW at 2450rpm. The propul­sion unit com­bines with the light­weight alu­mini­um hull to deliv­er a max­i­mum speed of more than 40 knots, a range of 1000nm (at 10 knots) and a small tac­ti­cal diam­e­ter and short crash stop distance. 

As well as pro­vid­ing supe­ri­or vis­i­bil­i­ty, the vessel’s fly bridge fea­tures a con­trol sta­tion, equip­ment mon­i­tor­ing, two gen­er­al-pur­pose lock­ers, a sig­nal light and access to the vessel’s PA sys­tem and main bridge inter­com. Locat­ed both port and star­board of the fly bridge are the vessel’s sec­ondary weapons — .50 cal fixed mount gen­er­al pur­pose machine guns — with a third locat­ed on a remov­able mount at the vessel’s stern. 

The pri­ma­ry weapon is a 20mm can­non mount­ed on the fore­deck and sup­port­ed by a ded­i­cat­ed mag­a­zine lock­er sit­u­at­ed underneath. 

Rein­forc­ing its sur­veil­lance capa­bil­i­ty, the vessel’s main bridge fea­tures a Northrop Grum­man Inte­grat­ed Bridge Sys­tem (IBS) util­is­ing new-gen­er­a­tion Sper­ry Marine Vision­mas­ter FTTM nav­i­ga­tion tech­nol­o­gy, includ­ing an “X” Band radar sys­tem with high speed scan­ner. Inte­grat­ed mul­ti-func­tion con­soles enhance sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness for the bridge watch team. A HF, V/UHF mil­i­tary com­mu­ni­ca­tions pack­age from CEA Tech­nolo­gies includ­ed crew familiarisation. 

A Captain’s Cab­in and a two-berth Officer’s Cab­in, com­plete with cli­mate con­trol, are sit­u­at­ed on the main deck, along with bath­room and lock­er facil­i­ties. Locat­ed on the out­side aft sec­tion of the main deck is space for the vessel’s 4.8 metre Rigid Inflat­able Boat (RHIB). Launch and recov­ery of the RHIB is achieved via a hydraulic knuck­le boom crane. 

Ensur­ing max­i­mum crew hab­it­abil­i­ty dur­ing long term sur­veil­lance mis­sions is a spa­cious crew mess, ful­ly equipped gal­ley and laun­dry facil­i­ties, all sit­u­at­ed on the low­er deck along with four two-berth cabins. 

The ves­sels are classed by Det Norske Ver­i­tas — the same clas­si­fi­ca­tion soci­ety used for four 21.5 metre Austal patrol boats built for the Armed Forces of Mal­ta and two large vehi­cle-pas­sen­ger cata­ma­rans cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion at Austal’s West­ern Aus­tralian shipyard. 

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Gen­er­al Ves­sel Description
Ves­sel Type: 
Fast Patrol Craft
Mate­r­i­al:
Alu­mini­um alloy
Hull Form:
Mono­hull
Dead­weight (max):
16 tonnes
Prin­ci­pal Dimensions
Length Over­all:
30.0 metres
Length (water­line):
24.6 metres
Beam (mould­ed):
6.4 metres
Depth (mould­ed):
3.2 metres
Draft (approx):
1.5 metres
Per­son­nel
Crew:
11
Per­for­mance
Range at 10 knots: 
>1000nm
Speed:
40 knots
Propul­sion
Main engines:
2 x MTU 16V 2000 M92
2 x 1630kW @ 2450rpm
Propul­sion:
2 x Rolls Royce — Kame­wa 56A waterjets
Weapons and Sensors
Stan­dard:
2 x .50 cal­i­bre gen­er­al pur­pose machine gun mounts
1 x 20mm Cannon
Clas­si­fi­ca­tion
Det Norske Ver­i­tas (DNV) X 1A1 HSLC R3 Patrol EO

Text- / Bildquelle (source):
Ansprech­part­ner / con­tact:
Austal
Phone: 61 8 9410 1111
Fax: 61 8 9410 2564
Email: pubrel@austal.comwww.austal.com

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