WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of International Acquisition announced Thursday its Foreign Military Sales program delivered its 200th vessel in support of developing navies and coast guards around the world.
Thirty seven nations received 116 excess boats and cutters as well as 84 new-procurement boats through the Foreign Military Sales program’s management and execution of Coast Guard Excess Defense Article transfer projects and foreign military sales. An additional 89 vessels, currently in some phase of construction and pending delivery, have been sold through foreign military sales. Through the past three years active foreign military sales projects have more than doubled to $100 million and annual new sales have increased from $10 million to more than $50 million.
The delivered assets range in size from 25-foot, Defender Class response boats to 210-foot, Reliance Class cutters. Some of our country’s strategic allies who received these assets include: Argentina, Chile, and Colombia in the Western Hemisphere; Ghana, Nigeria, and Tunisia in Africa; Iraq and Yemen in the Middle East; and Bangladesh and Pakistan in the Far East.
In addition to $25 million in disposal cost avoidance for the U.S. Coast Guard, these deliveries have strengthened U.S. national security in the maritime domain by building capacity for our international partners. Through such transactions, the Coast Guard is building enduring partnerships that enhance our capability to pursue cooperatively shared maritime safety and security goals.
The Foreign Military Sales program was established within the Office of International Affairs to execute excess defense article transfers. The office implemented its first new procurement foreign military sales case in 2001 through the Navy International Programs Office. More than 80 percent of foreign military sales management and execution is funded via the Navy International Programs Office from the Department of Defense foreign military sales administration trust fund, a pooled fund supplied via a surcharge assessed to foreign purchasers on every FMS case. The Foreign Military Sales program was transferred to the Deepwater Project Executive Officer in 2005, which became part of the larger Acquisition Directorate in July 2007.
