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F28 BNS Somudra Joy

The newest member of the Bangladesh Navy ‘s fleet, the BNS Somudra Joy, arrived at Chittagong port on 12 December 2013. Samudra is a Sanskrit term for "ocean", literally the "gathering together of waters". Kshira-Samudra is the ocean of milk, which was churned by the gods, according to Puranic legend. The sea of milk and curds is the Milky Way and the various congeries of nebulae. The allegory of the churning of the ocean of milk refers to a time before the kosmos was evolved. Vishnu, who here stands for aeonic preservation of karmically developed kosmic stuff or matter, is its intelligent preserver, and churns out of the primitive ocean (the chaos of a universe in pralaya) the amrita or immortal essence which is reserved only for the gods.

Formerly the United States Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis, the 378-foot high endurance cutter was commissioned in Hawaii in 1972 and at 3,300 tons is now the largest vessel in the Bangladesh Navy inventory. The ship was transferred to the Bangladesh Navy under the Excess Defense Articles program on 21 May 2013, and after an extensive program for training and new equipment installation in California, the 167-man crew has successfully conducted a six week transit of the Pacific Ocean. Responding to the disaster in the Philippines, the Bangladesh Navy was able to make use of the ship’s voyage to pick up over 40-tons of relief supplies and delivery them to Manila on November 30, 2013. The ship will be expected to provide the Bangladesh Navy many decades [according to local reports] of reliable service in extending their nation’s interest and global security into the Bay of Bengal.

The 378-foot High Endurance Cutter class are the largest cutters, aside from the three major Icebreakers, ever built for the Coast Guard. They are powered by diesel engines and gas turbines, and have controllable-pitch propellers. Equipped with a helicopter flight deck, retractable hangar, and the facilities to support helicopter deployment, these 12 cutters were introduced to the Coast Guard inventory in the 1960s. Beginning in the 1980s and ending in 1992, the entire class was modernized through the Fleet Renovation and Modernization (FRAM) program. The first of the class was the Hamilton (WHEC-715) commissioned in 1967. Highly versatile and capable of performing a variety of missions, these cutters operate throughout the world's oceans.

The Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis, a 378-foot High Endurance Cutter homeported in Alameda, was decommissioned and transferred to the Bangladesh navy as the BNS Somudra Joy during a ceremony on Coast Guard Island in Alameda May 23, 2013. A 20-member team from the Bangladesh navy, led by prospective commanding officer Capt. Mohammad Nazmul Karim Kislu, arrived in Alameda in March to begin preparations to receive the Jarvis. An additional 70 members of the Bangladesh crew arrived in May. Until the BNS Sumudra Joy's departure from California later this year, 26 former Jarvis crew members would serve as advisors and assist the Bangladesh crew.

Commissioned in 1972, the Jarvis was the fourth in its class of High Endurance Cutters to be replaced by the National Security Cutters. The National Security Cutters, compared to 378-foot cutters, is designed to provide better sea-keeping and higher sustained transit speeds, greater endurance and range, and the ability to launch and recover small boats from astern, as well as aviation support facilities and a flight deck for helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Coast Guard members conduct a firefighting drill for the Bangladesh navy aboard a Bangladesh ship moored at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, Calif., Wednesday, June 19, 2013. The firefighting drill is a test to determine the Bangladeshi crew’s ability to get their ship underway safely. For several months, Coast Guard members from the former Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis — which was transferred to the nation of Bangladesh during a ceremony on May 23, 2013 — helped the Bangladeshi sailors understand the logistics and operations of their new ship, the BNS Somudra Joy.

Bangladesh Navy's (BN's) new ship BNS Somudra Joy - ex-US Coast Guard (USCG) Hamilton-class cutter Jarvis - departed Alameda, California, on 26 October 2013 for its home port of Chittagong. Having successfully completed a two-day equipment trial off San Francisco, the ship picked up ammunition for its Oto Melara 76/62 main gun in San Diego before departing US waters.

This concluded a two-year-long process of identifying the cutter for decommissioning, advising foreign allies of its availability, allocating it to a country with the capability of supporting it, and whose national defense objectives align with United States’ regional goals, Letters of Offer and Acceptance, decommissioning and transfer ceremonies, training a new crew, and establishing the initial support of what is often the largest and most complex combatant vessel the receiving country has seen.