CIPPB Te Kukupa II

Te Kukupa II is a Guardian-class patrol boat built in Australia for the Cook Islands.^[1] It replaced the original Te Kukupa, supplied to the Cook Islands three decades earlier. Her crew is drawn from the Cook Islands Police Service.

Te Kukupa II in Avarua harbour in July 2023
History
Cook Islands
Name	Te Kukupa II
Builder	Austal
Launched	January 2022
Acquired	9 June 2022
Identification	IMO number: 4734245 MMSI number: 518998268 Callsign: E5U4248
Status	In service
General characteristics
Class and type	Guardian-class patrol boat
Length	39.5 m (130 ft)
Beam	8 m (26 ft)
Draft	2.5 ft (0.76 m)
Propulsion	2 × Caterpillar 3516C diesels, 2 shafts
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range	3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Armament	Australia provides the ships without armament, but they are designed to be able to mount heavy machine guns, or an autocannon of up to 30mm on the foredeck

At the farewell of Te Kukupa I, Australian High Commissioner Christopher Watkins noted the original Te Kukupa had been a gift from Australia at the time when Australia and the Cook Islands "were united in our anger at French nuclear testing." Rather than Australia expanding its own Navy, the Hawke Government had decided to empower its Pacific partners. “We would trust that the stronger and safer our Pacific partners were, the stronger and safer Australia would be."^[2]

Australia supplied 22 Pacific Forum-class patrol boats to 12 of its smaller Pacific Forum allies when the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea established that maritime nations controlled an economic exclusion zone 200 kilometres (120 mi) off their coasts.

Design

Australia designed the vessels to use commercial off the shelf 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 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), and have a complement of approximately 20 crewmembers. They are able to launch and retrieve a pursuit boat from a stern launching ramp without requiring bringing the vessel to a halt.^[3]

Operational history

Te Kukupa II was launched in January 2022.^[1][4] It was formally handed over to the Cook Islands at a ceremony on 9 June 2022,^[5] and arrived in Rarotonga on 20 July 2022.^[6]

In August 2022 it transported covid-19 vaccines to Palmerston Island.^[7]

References

1. "New police patrol boat launched". Cook Islands News. 22 January 2022. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
2. https://www.cookislandsnews.com/internal/national/local/cook-islands-farewell-police-patrol-boat-te-kukupa-0/
3. "Austal Launches 15th Guardian-class Patrol Boat Te Kukupa II for Cook Island". Military Leak. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
4. "Austal launches 15th Guardian-class patrol boat Te Kukupa II for Australia". Navy Recognition. 19 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
5. "PM attends handover ceremony for Te Kukupa II". Cook Islands News. 10 June 2022. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
6. Melina Etches (21 July 2022). "Te Kukupa II welcomed home". Cook Islands News. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
7. Matthew Littlewood (25 August 2022). "Te Kukupa II to transport latest batch of Covid-19 vaccines to Palmerston". Cook Islands News. Retrieved 26 August 2022.