HMPNGS Rabaul (01) was the first Pacific Forum patrol vessel to be commissioned, in May 1987.

[1] She is not the first vessel of the class to go out of service, because her sister ship from Fiji RFNS Kiro was wrecked in 2016.

[5][6] Australia gave these vessels to her smaller neighbors after the United Nations Convention of the Laws of the Sea established that maritime nations had 200-kilometre (120 mi) exclusive economic zone.

Australia fully equipped the ships, prior to delivery, with the exception of providing armament, but they are capable of mounting an autocannon on the foredeck.

Rabaul and her sister ships played a role in the Bougainville conflict.