Turkmenistan Developing Locally Made Coast Guard Ship

Turkmenistan is developing its first indigenous coast guard ship, part of the country's effort to protect its Caspian shore, state media reported. There were very few details given in this account on Turkmenistan's official government website, which at the very end of a long report about President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's visit to a military unit in Ashgabat:

Chief of the State Border Guard Service M. Yslamov presented the model of the Arkadag patrol ship – the first vessel built in Turkmenistan to the President.

Arkadag, incidentally, means "Protector" and is the new honorific that has been given to Berdimukhammedov, in the same fashion that his predecessor was named Turkmenbashi, or "Leader of the Turkmen," which now happens to be also the name of the country's major Caspian port and apparent future site of its naval headquarters.

(And yes, this was actually almost two months ago, but it's been barely reported and new to The Bug Pit. This weekend, of course, Berdimukhammedov was engaged with a different sort of vehicle, winning a car race.)

This follows Turkmenistan's quiet move last year to buy two Turkish fast patrol boats, and the decision to establish a naval academy in Turkmenbashi. (He also recently got a tour of a Turkish coast guard vessel with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.)

It's not clear what sort of shipbuilding capacity Turkmenistan has now, but last year it signed an agreement with Korean company Hyundai Amco to build a $130 million shipbuilding and repair facility in Turkmenbashi. There is no indication of when the Arkadag might be launched, so perhaps it will be built there.