The U.S. defense Department announced that on 31 December 2020 issued by the American katastrofalni company SAFE Boats International a contract worth 19,969 million dollars to prepare the start of construction (purchase of materials and components, etc.) the first two high-speed patrol boats Mk VI for subsequent delivery to the government of Ukraine on the line of the American program of the intergovernmental foreign military sales Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
Mk VI high-speed patrol boats built by SAFE Boats International for the US Navy (c) SAFE Boats International
The contract should be implemented by December 2022. Within the framework of the budget of fiscal year 2020, $ 5.4635 million is allocated for the implementation of the contract from the approved funds of American military assistance to Ukraine.
On the part of bmpd, we recall that in June 2020, the US Department of Defense Agency for Military Cooperation (Defense Security Cooperation Agency - DSCA) sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale of 16 Mk VI high-speed patrol boats to Ukraine through the US FMS program. The total cost of the proposed delivery will be $ 600 million, including training and technical support packages.
According to more recent reports from Ukrainian sources, the first six of these Mk VI patrol boats will be delivered to Ukraine at the expense of American military assistance, and the remaining ten Ukraine will have to pay from its own resources. Presumably, the delivery of the first two Mk VI boats will be financed within the framework of the US Congress-approved package of military assistance to Ukraine for the 2020 fiscal year in the amount of $ 250 million. Delivery of the first two boats to Ukraine is expected at the end of 2022, which is confirmed by the above contract.
According to the DSCA notification, the planned delivery of 16 Mk VI boats to Ukraine will also include 32 MSI Seahawk A2 remote-controlled artillery units (two per boat) with 30-mm Mk 44 Bushmaster II automatic guns (a total of 40 guns, including eight spare ones); 20 FLIR electron-optical systems (including four spare ones); 16 non-lethal infrasound emitters LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) and 16 state recognition systems, as well as communications equipment, various related equipment, spare parts, etc.The general contractor for the supply will be the American company SAFE Boats International with headquarters in Bremerton (Washington), which is building Mk VI boats for the US Navy.
Patrol boats of the Mk VI type have been developed and built by SAFE Boats International in Bremerton since 2014 for the coastal forces of the US Navy, a total of 12 Mk VI boats were received by the US Navy in 2015-2018, and the overall plans for their purchase by the US Navy are 48 units. The purchase price of one boat with weapons and equipment for 2014 was $ 15 million for the US Department of Defense.
The all-aluminum boat of the Mk VI type has a total displacement of 72 tons, a length of 25.8 m, a width of 6.2 m and a draft of 1.2 m. It is equipped with two MTU 16V2000M94 diesel engines with a total power of 5200 hp with two HamiltonJet HM651 water cannons and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 45 knots. Cruising range 690 miles at a speed of 30 knots. The boat's crew consists of 10-11 people, and another seven or eight are able to accommodate additional (there are 18 seats in total).
The standard armament of the boat in the US Navy is two 25-mm automatic remote-controlled Mk 38 Mod 2 installations (in fact, these are Typhoon installations of the Israeli company Rafael) and six 12.7-mm M2 machine guns on turret installations (it is possible to install 7.62-mm machine guns or 40-mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launchers). As can be seen from the DSCA notification, on the boats intended for Ukraine, the Israeli-born Mk 38 Mod 2 installations are planned to be replaced with Seahawk A2 artillery installations of the British company MSI-Defense Systems Ltd. (which has a representative office in the United States).
The Mk 50 fire control system installed on the Mk VI boats is actually a ship-based version of the land-based remote-controlled fire control system for the Kongsberg M153 CROWS armored vehicles. In the United States, the issue of equipping the Mk VI boats of the American fleet with small-sized BGM-176B Griffin or Hellfire missiles is also being discussed, and, according to the Ukrainian media, allegedly BGM-176B Griffin missiles are supposed to be installed on Ukrainian boats. Ukrainian boats are supposed to be based mainly on the Sea of Azov.
