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.