Donated USCG Cutter Departs for Sri Lanka Starting Record Voyage
The former USCG Cutter Decisive, at an age well-past retirement for most ships, is headed to a new role in the Sri Lankan Navy. The ship, which served the U.S. Coast Guard for 55 years, departed Baltimore, Maryland, on February 21 under the pennant number P 628, starting what will become the longest distance voyage for the Sri Lankan Navy, and its first transit of the Panama Canal.
The trip to her new home in Sri Lanka is expected to take 77 days and will cover approximately 14,775 nautical miles. The transfer of the cutter on December 2, 2025, to Sri Lanka was carried out under the United States’ Excess Defense Articles program. With the addition of Decisive, Sri Lanka now operates four former U.S. Coast Guard cutters, making it the leading operator of U.S. EDA-transferred cutters.
Decisive’s keel was laid on May 12, 1967, at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Maryland, with her launching on December 14, 1967. She was commissioned on August 23, 1968, and had several homeports during her career, starting in New Castle, New Hampshire, and later St. Petersburg, Florida, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, before her final assignment to Pensacola, Florida.
She was built as the 15th vessel of the 16-ship Reliance-Class Medium Endurance Cutters. She is 210 feet (64 meters) in length and designed for a 100-person complement. Furthermore, she was designed with a range of up to 6,000 nautical miles for her patrols.
During her career, she rescued crewmembers of the Canadian S/V Toberua after it foundered in 40-foot seas and 60-knot winds, executed the first seizure of a Soviet trawler for violating the newly established 200-mile marine resource zone, and spent many years patrolling off Florida for drug interdiction and migrants. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Decisive assumed tactical command of the Mississippi Coastal Recovery Base Gulfport, and coordinated the efforts of all Coast Guard units in the area. Later, she played a significant role in the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest oil disaster in American history. Decisive was decommissioned on March 1, 2023.
Sri Lanka supplied a crew of 86 navy personnel (14 officers and 72 sailors) for the ship in Baltimore. After preparations, she departed last week on the historic voyage and will make goodwill stops during the trip before reaching Sri Lanka tentatively on May 8.
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Once commissioned into active service, she will be used for maritime surveillance while strengthening Sri Lanka’s counter-narcotics and anti-smuggling operations. She will also be used to support search and rescue missions.
The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka said the donation was a sign of the strong relationship with the country. They said the ship would continue her productive career, enhancing security in the Indian Ocean.