One week after being handed over from Australia to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, NUSHIP Ted Diro has passed its initial sea-readiness evaluation with support from Navy’s Sea Training Unit - Defence Cooperation Program.
Commander Sea Training Defence Cooperation Program, Captain John Cowan, said Ted Diro’s ship’s company had been put through a comprehensive training program that culminated in a whole ship evaluation before sailing for Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea via Darwin.
“The training has specifically focussed on mariner skills to ensure that the ship’s company can navigate their ship, operate the ship’s systems correctly, and can conduct all of the activities that the ship needs to safely complete the long voyage back to Papua New Guinea,” he said.
“We’ve been conducting training with the ship’s company for the past week and today is the evaluation day where the assessment of the crew is being conducted under the authority of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Patrol Boat Squadron Commander.”
Captain Cowan said the crew of Ted Diro had faced a number of challenges to get to this point.
“Firstly, they had to come together as a crew in the Pacific Patrol Boat, the former HMPNGS Rabaul,” he said.
“They honed their skills in Rabaul and then conducted the long voyage from Port Moresby to Port Macquarie, NSW for the disposal of the Pacific Patrol Boat.
“The crew then travelled to Western Australia to conduct individual conversion training to prepare for the first of the Guardian class Patrol boats, Ted Diro.
“Once they were proficient in operating the ship’s systems from an individual skills point of view, we commenced training with ship’s company to bring them together as a team performing to the standard and the program required by the PNG Defence Force.”
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