Working alongside Royal Australian Navy forces, disposing of Second World War bombs in Vanuatu, marching in a street parade in Tonga and surveying areas of the sea floor in Ha’apai has kept the Royal New Zealand Navy Littoral Warfare Force busy.
10 July, 2024
HMNZS Manawanui arrived back at Devonport Naval Base on Wednesday, allowing the crew to take a well-earned break after the busy deployment.
Commander Yvonne Gray has now led HMNZS Manawanui through two Operation Calypso deployments to the South West Pacific, and says the highlight of this one was completing the disposal of five 1000lb bombs located in around 20 metres of water in Port Vila harbour.
Five Maritime Explosive Ordnance Disposal (MEOD) divers from the expeditionary unit HMNZS Matataua used low order charges to crack the bombs open, filling them with sea water and rendering them safe with minimal disturbance to sea life and the reef.
“From the planning at Headquarters Joint Forces in New Zealand and at HMNZS Matataua, through to the liaison and cordon support from the Vanuatu Mobile Force, Vanuatu Police, and the Vanuatu Ports and Harbour Authority, this was an effective and efficient operation that really demonstrated the team effort between the New Zealand Defence Force and Vanuatu officials,” said Commander Gray.
Able Rating Nicole Anderson was the lead hydrographer embarked on the ship, working with HMNZS Matataua’s Survey Search and Rescue (SSR) team to complete a survey of a 41 nautical miles squared area in Ha’apai, Tonga, in just 72 hours.
“We’d been asked by the Government of Tonga to carry out the hydrographic survey, which will improve safety of navigation after the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and subsequent tsunami in January 2022. We were joined by two hydrographers from the Republic of Fiji Navy and one from the Tongan Royal Navy, which gave them some valuable experience and meant they were part of an important task which will benefit all Pacific nations and mariners when navigating in and around Tonga.”
The SSR and MEOD teams were just two of the deployable teams who joined HMNZS Manawanui for the operation.
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