There has been a report that the US will be providing assistance in the form of maritime enforcement assets to some ASEAN nations, notably those in conflict with China.
“On his first visit to Vietnam as America’s top diplomat, Kerry pledged an additional $32.5 million for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to protect their territorial waters and navigational freedom in the South China Sea, where four states have competing claims with China. Included in the new aid is up to $18 million for Vietnam alone that will include five fast patrol-boats for its Coast Guard. With the new contribution, U.S. maritime security assistance to the region will exceed $156 million over the next two years, he said.”
This isn’t really a lot of additional capability when a Webber class cost on the order of $50M. Five vessels totaling $18M, and that will certainly include training, spares, etc. so less than $3.6M each. They could be talking about Response Boat, Mediums. The last contract was $89M for 40, roughly $2.4M each. Add the miscellaneous additional expenses and it might come to to $18M.
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At any rate, it is likely the Coast Guard will be tasked with doing some of the training. It’s also possible the Coast Guard’s Foreign Military Sales effort will be a bit busier.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 