Home Americas Uruguay first to receive former US Coast Guard Protector patrol boats

Uruguay first to receive former US Coast Guard Protector patrol boats

Protector-class patrol boat
US Coast Guard file photo of USCGC Cochito

The US Coast Guard will soon transfer Protector-class patrol boats to Uruguay under the United States’ excess defense articles program.

Vice Adm. Paul Thomas, Coast Guard deputy commandant for mission support, and ambassador Andrés Durán Hareau, Uruguay ambassador to the United States, commemorated the upcoming transfer of three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats to Uruguay in a ceremony on February 10 at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Uruguay was selected to receive former Coast Guard Cutters Albacore, Cochito and Gannet by the Navy International Programs Office and signed a $5 million letter of offer and acceptance on December 15, 2021.

Thomas called the transfer a win-win situation, helping Uruguay to swiftly enhance their maritime security while achieving the goals of both nations. He said the patrol boats are still a crucial asset in the Coast Guard fleet, with 64 still in operation.

The former cutters will undergo maintenance, upgrades and outfitting at Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore. Members of the Uruguay Navy will also be trained in the operation and maintenance of the vessels. Once work on the vessels and training are complete, the Uruguay Navy crewmembers will sail the patrol boats to Uruguay, with arrival anticipated in July 2022.

The 87-foot Protector-class patrol boat is an innovative, multi-mission vessel used by the Coast Guard to perform search and rescue, law enforcement, fishery patrols, drug interdiction, illegal immigrant interdiction and homeland security duties up to 200 miles offshore. These are the first boats of this class transferred to a foreign partner nation through EDA.

The three vessels going to Uruguay were commissioned between 1999 and 2009 and homeported in Connecticut, Virginia and Florida.

Ambassador Hareau said the patrol boats would replace two 95-foot Cape-class patrol boats transferred to the Uruguay Navy in 1990 under the predecessor to the EDA program. Those boats are now more than 60 years old.