The unusual sight of ten navy patrol vessels for Yemen being loaded onboard the heavy lift ship Maria in the first week of February contrasted the normal exports leaving the Western Australian port of Fremantle.

The heavy lift ship left Fremantle on Wednesday and will offload the Middle East nation's new maritime force in the port of Hodeida in approximately two weeks time.

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new patrol boats are 60 members of the Yemen defense force who each spent several weeks in Perth last year receiving instruction on vessel operation and maintenance techniques.

The shipment is an international logistics exercise involving leading shipbuilder Austal; Singapore-based project and heavy lift shipping specialist Coli Shipping; SAL, the German owners of "Maria"; and the Yemen Ministry of Defense, which ordered the boats in June 2003.

Loading of the 37.5 m boats, each weighing in at 90 tonnes, was managed by local heavy lift and logistics specialists, Global Hire.

The delivery of the vessels marks a milestone in Austal's progress as an internationally recognized supplier of navy and patrol vessels. It follows last month's naming ceremony for the first of twelve 57 m patrol boats for the Royal Australian Navy.

The patrol boats for Yemen have been designed to meet a variety of operational requirements including general police missions in coastal waters, customs control and anti-terrorist operations at sea, offshore protection and tracking, EEZ surveillance, defense and protection of national sea areas and operations within integrated task forces.