The assembly of the Mark VI boats is expected to end in 2025. The contract concerns the design, construction and equipment of “six Mark VI patrol boats and possibly two additional”.
The contract amount is $84.25 million.
In the summer of 2020, the US Department of State approved the sale of up to 16 modern Mark VI patrol boats and related equipment to Ukraine for a total of $600 million, according to a statement from the Department of Military Cooperation of the US Department of Defense.
In particular, the Ukrainian government requested the opportunity to purchase up to 16 Mark VI patrol boats, 32 remote-controlled machine guns MSI Seahawk A2, 20 optoelectronic and infrared radars, 16 friend-or-foe recognition systems, 40 MK44 light machine guns (32 for installation and 8 spare) and other components, as well as ship maintenance services.
These are new patrol boats, which were put into service only in 2016. There are various modifications of these boats. Defense News describes one of them as equipped with two 50 mm heavy machine guns and two 25 mm remote-controlled cannons and a modern optical guidance system.
In addition, the boats are equipped with two 50 mm light machine guns. The crew of the boat is ten people, in total there can be up to 20 people on board. The maximum speed reaches 85 kilometers per hour.