U.S. Navy officials met with their Iraq counterparts last month to discuss building a fleet of patrol boats to help that nation protect and control its territorial waters, according to the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I).
Iraq and U.S. military personnel met at a two-day work definition conference, June 12-14, in Baghdad to develop specifications for the 35-meter patrol boats, according to MNSTC-I. The first four of a 15-boat construction program are due for delivery to Iraq by the end of 2010, MNSTC-I added.
“The 35-meter patrol boat contract is just one part of a larger total program, which also delivers spare parts, guns, ammunition, training, naval simulators and infrastructure within Umm Qasr Naval Base, Iraq. The total program for the Iraqi Navy is the third largest case of foreign military sales, or FMS, to Iraq,” MNSTC-I said in a statement.
“These patrol boats will protect Iraq’s offshore oil platforms, which are vital to the recovery of the country’s economy and infrastructure,” U.S. Navy Capt. Dan Keller, director, Security Assistance Directorate of the Navy International Programs Office, said. “With stable oil-export revenues, everything else can grow.”
More than 75 percent of Iraq’s gross domestic product comes from revenues generated by its offshore oil operations, according to MNSTC-I.
The work definition conference, convened at Camp Phoenix in the International Zone of Baghdad, was hosted by the MNSTC-Iraq. The agenda was hammered out by the U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office, Ships, which oversees navy-related foreign military sales (FMS), according to U.S. Navy Cmdr. Darren Glaser, chief, Foreign Military Sales/Navy Programs for MNSTC-I’s Iraq Security Assistance Mission, according to MNSTC-I.