Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (the official name of Malaysia’s Coast Guard) director general Rear Admiral (Maritime) Datuk Mohd Rosli Abdullah says that the former United States Coast Guard cutter USCGS Steadfast is expected to be handed over to the agency by the end of the year.
During his recent visit to the United States, the Rear Admiral visited the Steadfast at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, inspecting the cutter and the work being done to refurbish the cutter ahead of its delivery to Malaysia.
According to Rear Admiral Mohd Rosli, he found the Steadfast to be in good condition and possessed of a comfortable working environment for the Malaysian coast guard officers set to operate the cutter in the future. He added that the addition of the cutter to the Malaysian coast guard fleet would improve its ability to conduct operations in Malaysia’s maritime zone based on the principles of “ever present” and “the right asset for the right mission”.
Rear Admiral Mohd Rosli said refurbishment work on the cutter to prepare it for Malaysian service focused on areas including propulsion, electricity generation, structural integrity, communications systems, navigation systems, and crew amenities.
As part of the visit to Baltimore, the Rear Admiral and his entourage also visited the U.S. Coast Guard’s Surface Acquisitions Logistics Centre for discussions on the preparation of support equipment for the cutter and facilities for the Malaysian coast guard crew members set to begin familiarization training. According to a MMEA readout, damage control and fire fighting equipment, crew amenities like galley equipment and the contents of the Onboard Spare List are already ready ahead of the delivery of the cutter.
The trip to the United States also saw Rear Admiral Mohd Rosli pay a courtesy call to U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda L. Fagan in Washington D.C., with the Malaysian coast guard chief saying after the meeting that he was grateful for the U.S. Coast Guard’s support of its Malaysian counterpart, particularly in areas like maritime security and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
USCGC Steadfast
The USCGC Steadfast was decommissioned on February 1, 2024 after 56 years of service. The Reliance-class medium endurance cutter was the first cutter in Coast Guard history to seize a cumulative one million pounds of marijuana, with the crew calling it El Tiburon Blanco or the White Shark after the legend that it had earned the name from 1970s Caribbean drug smugglers for the amount of smuggling attempts it foiled.
Following its decommissioning, the Steadfast was made available as an Excess Defense Article and moved to the Coast Guard Yard ahead of refurbishing for a potential second operator.
In August, Malaysia’s Home Ministry presented the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Edward Kagan a letter of acceptance for a Coast Guard cutter. While the cutter was not initially identified when the letter of acceptance was delivered, the acting director general of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency at the time, Vice Admiral Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim, subsequently confirmed that the Steadfast was the cutter to be delivered, with the cutter initially planned to arrive in Malaysia during the first quarter of 2025.