Page 31: of Marine News Magazine (June 2023)

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cludes options for the construction of a total of 16 river buoy tenders and 11 inland construction tenders. A third ship in the program, the Inland Buoy

Tender, is being acquired separately.

The Coast Guard is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Marine Design Center to develop a government-led design for the Inland

Buoy Tender variant.

Foreign military sales

A signi? cant number of boats are acquired for and transferred to al- lied and partner nations, particularly smaller navies and coast guard. Ac- cording to Robinson, NAVSEA has over 100 active foreign military sales (FMS) cases that are delivering small boats and combatant craft to interna- tional customers.

According to Robinson some of the prominent FMS cases include the

Near Coastal Patrol Vessel (NCPV) being provided to partner nations in

South America. The NCPV program is a partnership with the U.S. De- partment of State and U.S. Southern

Command (USSOUTHCOM) to support patrol operations in U.S.- allied countries in Central America,

Latin America and the Caribbean.

Metal Shark was is building the

NCPVs for Costa Rica, the Domini- can Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Rigid hull In? atable Boats (RIBs) and patrol boats are also being provid- ed to partner nations across the mid- dle east, South America and Europe. “The Navy also has smaller FMS cases that provide small boat equip- ment, training and life cycle support,”

Robinson said.

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