Austal has announced that the first of two Cape class patrol boats for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Cape Fourcroy, has been delivered from the company’s Henderson shipyard in Western Australia. The vessels are to be chartered by the Commonwealth.

“Austal has been building patrol boats for over 20 years, and we look forward to more work in the future,” said Austal chief executive officer David Singleton.

“This includes the opportunity to design and build 12 new Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Australian Navy with our design partner Fassmer in a continuous shipbuilding initiative being driven by the government.”

Austal stated that it currently has an order book of 20 patrol vessels to be delivered over the next four years, and is proposing variations of its Bay class, Cape class and Guardian class patrol boats for customers in the Middle East and Asia, and expects this activity to bring construction work to Australia.