The United States Coast Guard is due to handover a ship named
‘Cutter Jarvis’ to Bangladesh Navy on Thursday night.
The 378-feet long ship will be the largest ship in Bangladesh Navy, US Ambassador to Dhaka Dan W Mozena told journalists on January 15. “At 10:00am Pacific Day Time (11:00pm Bangladesh Time) on May 23, the US Coast Guard will officially decommission Cutter Jarvis and transfer it to the Bangladesh Navy renamed as BNS Somudro Joy in a ceremony held at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California,” said a US Embassy press release on Thursday.
Vice Admiral Paul F Zukunft, Pacific Area Commander, and Vice Admiral Muhammad Farid Habib, Chief of Naval Staff for the Bangladesh Navy, will be on hand for the ceremony.
Jarvis is being transferred as an Excess Defense Articles (EDA) with a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case with Bangladesh. The BNS Somudro Joy will depart for Bangladesh later this year.
A 20-member team from the Bangladesh Navy arrived in Alameda on March 12, 2013 to begin preparations to accept Jarvis. These members of the Bangladesh crew are led by Captain Mohammad Nazmul Karim Kislu, the prospective Commanding Officer. They have worked and trained with the current Jarvis crew to become familiar with the ship.
An additional 70 members of the Bangladesh crew arrived on May 20. Upon completion of the transfer, 26 former Jarvis crew members will serve as advisors, assisting the Bangladesh crew until its departure from California on its way to Bangladesh.
According to media reports, Cutter Jarvis retired from active service in October, 2012 after more than 40 years of service. Jarvis was commissioned on Aug 4, 1972. The missions of the cutters like Jarvis include law enforcement, defense operations, and search and rescue. It is powered by diesel engines and gas turbines, and has controllable-pitch propellers.
Jarvis is equipped with one Mark 75 76-mm gun (anti-air capable), two 25-mm machine guns, one 20-mm Phalanx close-in weapons system (CIWS), a helicopter flight deck, retractable hangar, and the facilities to support helicopter deployments.
-With The Independent input
