SPRING EDITION ENGINE ROOM 13 The PPB-R Project comprises the design, construction, delivery, training and sustainment of nineteen 40-metre patrol boats to be gifted by the Commonwealth of Australia to 12 Pacific Island nations as part of Australia’s new Pacific Maritime Security Program. The commencement of the production phase of the steel vessel program, which was awarded to Austal last year, will enable the product baseline to be established. Construction of the Austal design began in Western Australia in April with deliveries scheduled to roll-out from 2018 to 2023. Sustainment of the new fleet of vessels will be carried out by Austal from facilities in Cairns. MEC are supporting Austal with extensive packages of Cat® equipment for each of the 19 vessels. Each package will contain two 3516C marine propulsion engines with ZF gearboxes, two C7.1 marine generator sets, one C4.4 emergency generator set, plus custom Caterpillar Propulsion Throttle Controls and class-approved alarm and monitoring. MEC Manager John Taylor attended the historic opening of Austal’s new Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Shipbuilding Facility joining key stakeholders from across the maritime industry to celebrate the project. “We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this program,” he says. ”Its due credit to the hard work that this team have put in together in partnering with Austal over many years.” HAVINGOURDEDICATED MARINETEAMBASEDIN WESTERNAUSTRALIA ALLOWSUSTOBEAT THEFOREFRONTOFTHE INDUSTRY. This contract follows on from the successful completion of the eight cape class patrol vessels for the Australian Border Force and a further two cape class vessels for the Royal Australian Navy. As part of MEC’s full-service offering, EPSA also engaged specialist trainers from Caterpillar’s Service Learning Centre in Melbourne to conduct tailored on-board maintenance training programs for the vessel crews. Last year, MEC also successfully delivered and commissioned a number of projects with Austal including four C18 generator packages and a C4.4 emergency generator on a 70-metre crew transfer vessel also built by Austal, and eight C9 generator set packages for two vessels bound for the Royal Navy of Oman. EPSA have worked with Austal for many years on projects for the ASX-listed Australian shipbuilder and Defence prime contractor’s naval vessel programs for Australian and overseas customers, including the Royal Australian Navy.  MECEXTENDLONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITHAUSTALSHIPS Working with our long-term customer Austal, EPSA’s Marine Excellence Centre (MEC) are proudly contributing to the $306 million Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement (PPB-R) Project – a key program for the growth of the Commonwealth’s continuous naval shipbuilding strategy.