Coast Guard Foreign Military Sales Boosting Standing With Partner Nations

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard’s foreign military sales program is fostering good relations with partner nations, increasing maritime governance and saving money, according to the program’s director, Tod Reinert.

Speaking before a show floor audience on May 6 during Sea-Air-Space 2019 at National Harbor, Maryland, Reinert also described how foreign sales of aging Coast Guard vessels is keeping U.S. vendors busy with replenishment and refurbishment contracts — all necessary to ensure that the new owners have hale platforms with which to pursue their missions.

The foreign military sales program is “extending production lines, sharing overhead costs and [sustaining] a robust vendor base,” Reinert said. 

The Coast Guard has delivered more than 540 “assets,” worth more than $1 billion, to 75 partner nations during the past 20 years. The list of benefactors is long. Bangladesh, Vietnam, Yemen and Saudi Arabia got response boats. The Philippines received riverine boats, and Tunisia got near-shore patrol boats. U.S. Central Command stands to take possession of retired medium-response boats as well.

Recipient nations stand to take ownership of decommissioned high-endurance cutters, Island-class patrol boats, medium-endurance cutters and patrol boats — in a time frame generally beginning sometime next year and spanning into 2024, Reinert said. 

These countries must rely upon their acquisitions to conduct search-and-rescue, maritime safety, law enforcement and national defense missions akin to those the Coast Guard performs every day — the cornerstones of its mission to protect the nation’s 95,000 nautical miles of coastline, Reinert said.

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