2019: A Patrol Boat is Commissioned into the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force

December 9, 2019

A patrol boat named Gizo was formally commissioned into the national police force of Solomon Islands, a country that that consists of six major islands more than 1,000 smaller islands within Melanesia (a subregion of Oceania) in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Solomons Islands, which is northeast of Australia, is a constitutional monarchy that was granted its independence from the United Kingdom in 1978.

Gizo was the fifth of the Guardian-class patrol boats to be designed and built in Australia for use by smaller countries in the South Pacific. Australia has supplied these vessels as part of its Pacific Maritime Security Program. Gizo became the first such boat to be provided for operational patrols conducted by the maritime department of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF). The official handover of Gizo to representatives of Solomon Islands took place in November 2019 at the Austal shipyard in the suburb of Henderson in Western Australia.  

Several hundred people turned out for the commissioning ceremony for Gizo in December of that year in Solomon Islands’ capital city of Honiara. The public officials in attendance included Manasseh Sogavare, prime minister of Solomon Islands; Anthony Veke, the country’s minister of police, national security, and correctional services; Sally Anne Vincent, Australian high commissioner; and Mostyn Mangau, the acting RSIPF commissioner.

“The maritime security partnership between Australia and the Solomon Islands has been in place for almost 40 years, with the first patrol boat gifted in the early 1980’s,” Mangau stated during this event. “Our countries share common values and a commitment to regional security.” Mangau also said, “This vessel is the pride of our fleet and will protect our borders and support our neighbors.”

Photo Credit: Calistemon (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Calistemon) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

For more information on RSIPV Gizo (05), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSIPV_Gizo