South Korea donates two retired Coast Guard Haeuri-class patrol vessels to Ecuador

According to information published on Facebook on November 14, 2020, South Korea has donated two retired Coast Guard Haeuri-class patrol vessels to Ecuador. On November 13, 2020, a ship loaded with two former Korea Coast Guard patrol vessel 302 and 303 departed the Port of Masan and is expected to arrive at its destination in early December 2020.


According to information published on Facebook on November 14, 2020, South Korea has donated two retired Coast Guard Haeuri-class patrol vessels to Ecuador. On November 13, 2020, a ship loaded with two former Korea Coast Guard patrol vessel 302 and 303 departed the Port of Masan and is expected to arrive at its destination in early December 2020.
Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link


Russian Vyborg Shipyard laid the Purga ice class coastguard ship of project 23550 925 001 South Korea has donated two retired Coast Guard Haeuri-class patrol vessels to Ecuador. (Picture source Facebook account Republic of Korea Armed Forces)


In May 2019, South Korea Coast Guard has announced that it would donate two patrol vessels to Ecuador, and now the delivery is finally underway. Ecuador paid for the transportation fee involved with this transfer.

These two patrol vessels were built in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and during their service with the KCG, they recorded 357 / 215 seizures of illegal fishing boats and 203 / 179 successful rescue operations. They will now serve the Ecuadorian Coast Guard to patrol the waters off the famous Galapagos Island against the Chinese fishing fleet. Ecuador currently only has a single vessel available for this role.

The Haeuri-class-class patrol vessels with pennant numbers 302 and 303 are a class of Medium-Sized Patrol Vessel of the Republic of Korea Navy. The vessels have a length of 53.7 m, a beam of 7.4 m, and a draught of 2.5 m and were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The ship is armed with one 20mm Sea Vulcan and different types of machine guns.

They entered service in December 1990 and December 1991 respectively and were decommissioned in October 2019 and January 2020. Both patrol vessels ended their service with the KCG’s Jeju command.