Ukraine to receive US patrol boats in 2022

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that
the country’s navy would be receiving U.S.-built Mark VI patrol boats starting
in 2022. He made the announcement during a speech in Odesa on July 3 to mark
Ukraine’s Navy Day, pravda.com.ua reports. The speech was part of his visit
during the Sea Breeze 2021 international naval exercise.

Zelensky also pointed to cooperation with the U.S.,
the UK and Turkey regarding the rebuilding of Ukraine’s navy and naval
infrastructure. In particular, a corvette is being built in Turkey with
completion to happen in Ukraine, minesweepers and missile boats will be
arriving from the UK, and port of Pivdenney is being upgraded. Moreover,
Ukrainian crews are currently in Turkey for training on Turkish-built Bayraktar
UAVs.

James Hydzik: The agreement
with the U.S. on the Mark VI boats was made in 2018, as the U.S. Navy was
receiving its own examples of the type. Since then, the original domestic order
of 48 boats was cut to 12, and the type was under threat of being pulled
completely as immediate U.S. naval requirements shifted, and possibly, high
maintenance costs and reliability issues came to the fore.

Depending on one’s view, the Ukrainian navy is either
getting the table scraps of America’s shifting military requirements, or
fortunate to have had the U.S. Navy spend eight years or so ironing out the
kinks in the latest diesel- waterjet-propelled ship technology before receiving
its own new-built examples of the type. There’s no doubt that the Mark VI boats
are fast, with a maximum speed of 45 knots according to wikipedia.org,
well-armed, and with a draft of 1.2 meters, potentially useful in the shallow
waters of the river deltas and bays along Ukraine’s coast.