A Tasmanian boat builder has been awarded a contract to provide military vessels to Ukraine as part of a $100 million military assistance package from the Australian federal government.
The undisclosed number of vessels, valued at $700,000 each, will be produced by Sentinel Boats at their Derwent Park facility in Hobart.
The vessels will be delivered to Ukraine in the coming months, following the project’s completion in June.
Sentinel chief executive George McGuire says their vessels are designed for river operations and will perform well across Eastern Europe.
“Theres a whole lot of waterways up there (in Ukraine), so they’re a really high speed, very powerful boat to move forces up and down in those waterways,” he said.
“We’ve got boats out there on their fifth set of engines, so you’re starting to replace engines rather than boats because these boats have a whole life that far exceeds anything that you can get out of aluminium or fibreglass.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said the vessels will be a valuable addition to their fleet.
“Every dollar counts, every piece of capability counts,” he said.
“These boats will be used by the special operations units for various amphibious missions and assignments.”
“They are fast, they are durable and they will be very handy and helpful for whatever we need them to do.”
