Sept. 27, 2018 —
U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Michael McAllister, Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, and Ukrainian Adm. Ihor Voronchenko, Naval Forces of Ukraine commander, shake hands after signing a certificate of implementation for the transfer of two 110-foot cutters to the Ukrainian government at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Sept. 27, 2018. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was also in attendance. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronald Hodges.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Michael McAllister, Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, and Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko commemorated the upcoming transfer of two former 110-foot Island Class patrol boats to Ukraine with a ceremony today at Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore.
Ukraine was selected to receive former Coast Guard Cutters Drummond and Cushing by the Navy International Programs Office and signed the Letter of Offer and Acceptance Sept. 14. The transfer is facilitated through the Excess Defense Articles Program of the Coast Guard’s Office of International Acquisition.
The former cutters are scheduled to be shipped to Ukraine in fall 2019 after completing maintenance, upgrades, outfitting and training of Ukraine navy crews in the Baltimore area. The Coast Guard will provide new equipment and technical and training services worth $9.8 million.
Drummond and Cushing are the seventh and eighth 110-foot patrol boats transferred to a foreign partner nation; other patrol boats have been transferred to Pakistan, Georgia and Costa Rica. Each 110-foot patrol boat transfer saves the Coast Guard money in remediation and disposal costs and helps build and sustain international maritime partnerships that foster greater global maritime security. One of the United States’ goals in this transfer is to help equip Ukraine with the means to project national sovereignty.
The former cutters Drummond and Cushing were previously based in the Seventh Coast Guard District, which covers Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico, and conducted missions including maritime homeland security, drug and migrant interdiction, fisheries enforcement, and search and rescue. The patrol boats entered service in the mid-1980s and 20 of the 49 cutters originally in the class remain in service. The ships are being replaced with 58 154-foot fast response cutters, 28 of which are in service.
For more information: International Acquisition Program page