Morgan City, La.-based Swiftships LLC was awarded a $15 million contract last week involving Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for four 28-meter (91.84') coastal patrol craft (CPC) production material kits (KITs) for the Egyptian Navy (EN). The contract calls for Swiftships to procure KITs so the EN can assemble/co-produce the 28-meter CPCs in Alexandria, Egypt. The CPCs will include 4.7-meter rigid inflatable boats, forward looking infrared system, diagnostic equipment, and contractor engineering technical services.

Swiftships will execute the contract under the U.S. Navy's Gulf Coast Supervisory Shipbuilding (SUPSHIP) Group at its military yard in Morgan City. The work is expected to be completed by December 2017.

“Swiftships is proud of its partnerships in the Middle-East, with fierce competition this award only strengthens our claims and our products demands to meet both naval or coastal needs,” Shehraze Shah, Swiftships' CEO, said in a statement

In May, Swiftships was awarded a contract for the construction of six additional 28-meter CPCs, but it involved technical and subject matter expertise to co-produce these vessels in Egypt under Swiftships' Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) model. Swiftships has delivered six 28-meter CPCs already to the EN, which were constructed at the Egyptian Ship Building and Repairs Co. in Alexandria, Egypt. “We are excited to continue building this relationship with Egypt,” Shah said.

Ken Hocke has been the senior editor of WorkBoat since 1999. He was the associate editor of WorkBoat from 1997 to 1999. Prior to that, he was the editor of the Daily Shipping Guide, a transportation daily in New Orleans. He has written for other publications including The Times-Picayune. He graduated from Louisiana State University with an arts and sciences degree, with a concentration in English, in 1978.