U.S. Coast Guard transfers two cutters to Georgian coast guard

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Coast Guard transferred two former cutters to the Georgian coast guard during a ceremony last month, the service announced this week.

The Jefferson Island and Staten island cutters were handed over to Georgia at the Coast Guard yard in Curtis Bay, Md., on Sept. 30, the service said in a statement.

The transfer marks the Office of International Acquisition's first transfer of the 110-foot patrol boats to a friendly nation via the Excess Defense Articles program.

The U.S. Coast Guard will also provide new equipment as well as technical and training services worth $5.3 million under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The vessels are slated to be shipped to Georgia next summer after completing maintenance, upgrades, outfitting and training of Georgian crews. They will be renamed Ochamchire and Dioskuria.

The transfers will each save the U.S. Coast Guard about $400,000 in remediation and disposal costs.

Jefferson Island and Staten Island entered service in the mid-1980s and were decommissioned in 2014.