Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Program

The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Program is an initiative where the governments of Australia and New Zealand will assist the governments of small Pacific Island countries in patroling their offshore sovereignty zones. According to the Nautilus Institute following the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea fora agreed island nations could establish 200 kilometre exclusive economic zones, there was a need for Australia and New Zealand's to supply their Pacific island neighbors with the kit to police their zones.

It is a follow-on program to an earlier Pacific Patrol Boat program, where Australia and New Zealand supplied 31 metre patrol boats to a dozen small nations, and helped train their crews. The new program would replace the older vessels, as they approached the end of their working life.

The new vessels would be slightly larger, and more capable than the earlier vessels, while still being designed to be easy to operate and maintain. The new vessels will be 40 metres long, and would carry a high speed pursuit boat, that could be launched and retrieved via a stern launching ramp, without requiring the parent vessel to first come to a stop. The United States Coast Guard's similar size Marine Protector cutters require only a single crew member to remain on deck when deploying or retrieving its pursuit boats via its stern launching ramp.

Australian shipbuilder Austal was awarded a preferred tender contract for the vessels, in May 2016, that is anticipated to be worth $900 million.

The advantages to Australia and New Zealand for this program include a reduction on the calls on their own maritime resources for search and rescue and humanitarian disaster assistance; the boats will help their small partners reduce unauthorized pollution of the Pacific; the boats will help their small partners protect their own fisheries, reducing the need for foreign aid.