US candidate ship may be transferred to Vietnam

USCGC Sherman (WHEC 720) is a Hamilton-class patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard. It was launched on January 25, 1967, commissioned on September 3, 1968, and first decommissioned in May 1986. It was reactivated in July 1989.

However, the WHEC 720's time on the ocean as a USCG patrol vessel is coming to an end as US officials announced they will hold a ceremony to withdraw the ship from the fleet on March 29, 2018.

There is a detail worth noting, that is the USCGC Sherman is considered the number 1 candidate that the US side will continue to hand over to the Vietnam Coast Guard after the USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC 720) under the program of selling excess defense equipment - EDA after we expressed our desire to receive more defense equipment from the US, especially patrol boats for the Coast Guard.

Due to its geographical location in Honolulu, Hawaii, the WHEC 720 is the only potential candidate to be transferred by the US because the remaining Hamilton-class ships are located on the other side of the United States, in the Atlantic Ocean, so the recipient will be different.

Looking back at history, after the USCGC Morgenthau was retired by the USCG on May 25, 2017, another ceremony was also held immediately, which was the handover ceremony of the ship to the Vietnam Coast Guard.

Now that the time for the USCGC Sherman to "retire" has been set, observers predict that it will be "transferred" to Vietnam to become the patrol ship CSB 8021.

The addition of a large Hamilton-class patrol ship will certainly help the maritime law enforcement capacity of the Vietnam Coast Guard to take a new step forward. It is expected that the CSB 8021 will become the command ship of a Region similar to the CSB 8020, and at the same time be the largest patrol ship of Vietnam before the DN-4000 is completed.

Chi Linh