Uruguay deploys its new Marine Protector patrol boats in its waterways

The Uruguayan Navy has begun to operate with its new Marine Protector class boats in patrol missions of the country’s waterways.

Within this framework, the ROU 16 Rio Yaguaron boat made visits to the ports of the cities of Carmelo and Nuevo Berlín, on the coast of the Uruguay River, where they received visits from the population who came to see the new Navy units.

The units are actively carrying out patrol tasks and in this sense the Minister of National Defense, Javier García, told local media that patrolling is part of the border policy and stressed that the Uruguay River is a very important area:

“It is one of the main waterways and the border law provides for the custody of river courses. On land, also 20 kilometers from borders inside.”

MARINE PROTECTOR-CLASS PATROL BOATS

The three Marine Protector-class patrol boats were received from the United States after a voyage that took 67 days.

They were a US donation and Uruguay took care of financing the costs of reconditioning the vessels that belonged to the US Coast Guard, jobs that totaled five million dollars.

The Marine Protector-class ships were designed based on the Damen Stan 2600 model and built by Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana, United States.

In total, 73 units were built for the Coast Guard and are still the backbone of its coastal and harbor area patrol forces.

The patrol boats displace in the order of 90 tons, with a length of 27 meters and are powered by two MTU engines.

They sail at a speed of 25 knots and with a range of 900 miles.

The organic armament consists of two .50 machine guns, one per band, they have a semi-rigid quick launch and recovery boat on a ramp aft of the boat and are equipped with a Furuno 3000 series surface radar, electronic navigation chart, FLIR camera and state-of-the-art fully digital machine control system.

The crew consists of between 10 to 12 crew members with capacities to accommodate personnel of both sexes.

With information from infodefensa

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