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26 new small boats help strengthen Iraqi navy

The Coast Guard’s Foreign Military Sales program is about to close one of its largest projects ever — the delivery of 26 Defender-class response boats and 80 spare engines to the Iraqi navy.

The service so far has delivered six of the 27-foot small boats, known to the Iraqis as fast-attack boats. With its Yamaha twin engines, the boats, similar to the Coast Guard’s response boat-small, can go up to 50 knots, a significant improvement over the Iraqis’ aging boats “that reached 10 or 15 knots on a good day,” said Michael Tangora, the Coast Guard’s director of acquisition services.

The next 10 boats are expected to ship out the second week of December, with the final 10 boats arriving by next summer.

The new small boat fleet will strengthen the Iraqi navy and the port of Umm Qasr, located in southern Iraq on the Kuwait border, not far from the Iranian border. The boats will be used to patrol the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which is shared by the three countries and flows into the Persian Gulf.

The $8.4 million project also includes training for the Iraqi navy. A detachment from Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown, Va., arrived at Umm Qasr a few weeks ago, around the time the first boat shipment was delivered. The detachment, made up mostly of boat operators and boat maintenance crew members, is training Iraqi sailors on operating and maintaining the new boats.

In training sessions, the Coast Guard detachment also is focusing on aids to navigation techniques. One of the primary duties of the new small boats will be to patrol the often dangerous coastal waterway. After decades of fighting in the area, there are numerous sunken vessels sailors will need to be able to navigate around.

“The Iraqis are extremely motivated,” said Gary Connor, senior case manager on the project. “They had already begun capital improvements to the base to accept the boats. They updated their piers so the boats could be moored safely, fixed the warehouses [so the equipment can be properly maintained], and every day, we were training in full classrooms. That really indicates how seriously they were taking the training.”

Connor flew to Iraq to make sure the first shipment was delivered smoothly. It took him six days to get to Umm Qasr and four days to leave, he said, but seeing the positive changes taking place on the base was well worth it.

Umm Qasr, a key Iraqi port, was heavily damaged in the Iran-Iraq war and was left mostly unattended for many years. By 2003, the port was basically operational again, but sailors based there still are building the fleet and learning how to maintain the equipment.

“Infrastructure is huge,” Connor said. “During the Saddam era, there was no program for maintenance. If something was broken, it was just discarded. Obviously that is not very economical. They are still transitioning, but I did see some of the most innovative engineers I’ve ever seen in my entire life” while at Umm Qasr.

The Coast Guard regularly provides equipment and training to other maritime nations through its Foreign Military Sales program, but this is the first time such a large agreement has been made with Iraq. The program provides both excess and new-construction vessels to other nations.

The Iraqi navy purchased the boats from SAFE Boats International in Port Orchard, Wash., through an FMS contract. The goal is to hand over more maritime responsibility to the Iraqis, Tangora said.

Although the government cannot profit from sales to other countries, Tangora said there are long-term benefits to the Coast Guard.

“It helps us maintain productivity in American manufacturing, it spreads the overhead rate, so it does indirectly benefit the U.S. Coast Guard,” he said.