• Vessel expected in 2025 

The United States (US) Government recently held preliminary talks with the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Colombo regarding the planned transfer of a fourth US Coast Guard cutter to the SLN, as part of the ongoing security partnership between both the countries.

“The ship is scheduled to join the SLN's fleet next year (in 2025) after undergoing necessary modernisation to meet the operational requirements,” the SLN said. The US has been supporting the SLN, the Sri Lanka Air Force and the Department of the Coast Guard to capacity build, aimed at improving Sri Lanka’s maritime domain related awareness and maritime security capabilities, and has provided the SLN with three ex-US Coast Guard cutters up to date.

In early April, discussions were held at the Navy Headquarters in Colombo on the transfer of the ex-U.S. Coast Guard medium endurance cutter USCGC Decisive (USCG pennant - WMEC 629) to the SLN. The Decisive, a reliance class medium endurance cutter built for the US Coast Guard in 1969, is of the same class as the SL Naval Service (SLNS) Samudura (formerly USCGC Courageous), and  was decommissioned in March of last year (2023) after 55 years of service. The 1,000 ton, 65 metre vessel is expected to be refurbished and modernised to suit the operational needs of the SLN. The SLN classifies the vessels as offshore patrol vessels (OPVs). The US had previously gifted three ex-Coast Guard vessels, namely SLNS 'Samudura' (P 621), SLNS 'Gajabahu' (P 626), and SLNS 'Vijayabahu' (P 627), to the SLN.

The SLN has been extensively patrolling the expanse of the Indian Ocean, and more recently the West Indian Ocean to intercept narcotics, human and arms trafficking. Sri Lanka also deployed an OPV on its first deployment to patrol the troubled Red Sea region earlier this year (2024). 

Last month, the SLN presented to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Ranil Wickremesinghe a proposal for the ‘SLN’s Strategy 2030 and Beyond.’  It is reliably learnt that the SLN has also sought assistance from several countries to introduce naval unmanned air systems to operate from their OPV fleet, aimed at improving the ships situational awareness, surveillance and to record evidence of intercepts for legal action.