US to hand over John Midgett coast guard ship to Vietnam
VOV.VN - The United States is testing its USCGC John Midgett coast guard ship, a Hamilton-class cutter in Washington, and is expected to deliver it to Vietnam in the coming weeks.
The US newspaper My Edmonds News has just published the latest images of the ship painted with the number and symbol of the Vietnam Coast Guard.
Accordingly, the vessel has carried hull number 8021, and its chimney has been painted with the Vietnamese flag. The US is doing a test run in Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, Washington State, before transferring it to Vietnam.
This is the second Hamilton-class cutter the US will have handed over to Vietnam under its Excess Defence Articles (EDA) program. The EDA offers excess military equipment to US partner and allied countries in support of military and security modernization efforts.
In May 2018 the US Coast Guard transferred its first High Endurance Cutter named CSB 8020 to Vietnam.
The ship is expected to improve the Vietnam Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness, increase its capacity to perform maritime law enforcement operations, and conduct search and rescue and other humanitarian response operations.