The Ukrainian patrol vessel ''Sloviansk'' (P190) was an of the

Naval Forces A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It inc ...

Armed Forces of Ukraine , imports = , exports = , history = , ranks = Military ranks of Ukraine , country=Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Збро́йні си́ли Украї́ни), most commonly known ...

. Originally named USCGC ''Cushing'' when in service with the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

, the vessel was acquired by Ukraine in 2018. She was built at

Bollinger Shipyards Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels. Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 to ...

Lockport, Louisiana Lockport is a town on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,490 in 2020. It is part of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. History Lockport, founded in 1835, ...

, in early 1988 and commissioned on 4 August 1988, at Coast Guard Base

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

. She was homeported in

Atlantic Beach, North Carolina Atlantic Beach is a town in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. It is one of the five communities located on Bogue Banks. The population was 1,495 at the 2010 census. History The idea of Atlantic Beach was first envisioned in the 1870 ...

. On 8 March 2017 ''Cushing'' was decommissioned along with USCGC ''Nantucket'' in North Carolina. Two s replaced both cutters the following year.

Design and construction

The s were constructed in

. ''Cushing'' has an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads in ...

of . It had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

of at the time of construction. The patrol boat has a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of at full load and at half load. It is powered by two

Paxman Valenta The Paxman Valenta was an engine made by Paxman, Colchester for the High Speed Train, and is still in use in various marine applications, such as the ''Upholder''/''Victoria''-class submarines, additionally 4 Paxman Valenta engines provide the ...

16 CM

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s or two Caterpillar 3516 diesel engines. It has two 3304T diesel generators made by Caterpillar; these can serve as

motor–generator A motor–generator (an M–G set) is a device for converting electrical power to another form. Motor–generator sets are used to convert frequency, voltage, or phase of power. They may also be used to isolate electrical loads from the electr ...

s. Its hull is constructed from highly strong steel, and the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

and major deck are constructed from aluminium. The Island-class patrol boats have maximum sustained speeds of . It is fitted with one machine gun and two M60 light machine guns; it may also be fitted with two Browning .50 caliber machine guns. The ship is fitted with satellite navigation systems, collision avoidance systems, surface radar, and a

Loran C Loran-C is a hyperbolic radio navigation system that allows a receiver to determine its position by listening to low frequency radio signals that are transmitted by fixed land-based radio beacons. Loran-C combined two different techniques to p ...

system. The vessel has a range of and an endurance of five days. Its complement is sixteen (two officers and fourteen crew members). Island-class patrol boats are based on

Vosper Thornycroft VT Group is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VT Group was integrated into Babcock International in t ...

patrol boats and have similar dimensions.

Service history

United States Coast Guard

''Cushing'' was commissioned on

Coast Guard Day Coast Guard Day is held every August 4 to commemorate the founding of the United States Coast Guard as the Revenue Marine on August 4, 1790, by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. On that date, U.S. Congress, guided by Hamilton, au ...

, 4 August 1988, named after Cushing Island, located near

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

. Throughout her service life, she would partake in a number of humanitarian and military operations. ''Cushing'' primarily supported the

's search and rescue, law enforcement, living marine resources, and counter drug and illegal migrant missions in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, and the Atlantic. ''Cushing'' was homeported in Alabama, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina during her Coast Guard service. ''Cushing'' was involved in

Operation Uphold Democracy Operation Uphold Democracy was a military intervention designed to remove the military regime installed by the 1991 Haitian coup d'état that overthrew the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The operation was effectively authorized by ...

, the American backed military intervention in Haiti following the

1991 Haitian coup d'état The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected eight months earlier in the 1990–91 Haitian general election, was deposed by the Armed Forces of Haiti. Haitian military officers, p ...

. In 1994, ''Cushing'' was among the 55 Coast Guard cutters operating in support of Operation Able Manner and Operation Able Vigil. These patrols consisted of border security operations, and resulted in the rescue and repatriation of over 63,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants. This was the largest United States Coast Guard operation since the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. ''Cushing'' was later transferred to North Carolina, where her primary focus was fisheries and marine life enforcement, as well as search and rescue. In 2017, ''Cushing'' was retired from

service and was laid up in the

Coast Guard Yard The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the largest industrial fa ...

near

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland.

Ukrainian Naval Forces

In September 2018, Ukraine was selected to receive the ''Cushing'', as well as her sister ship ''Drummond'' through the United States Navy International Programs Office, as part of military aid to the country. The Island-class patrol boat was the first major commissioned ship built in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

operated by the Ukrainian Navy, which up to this point was composed largely of ships inherited from the breakup of the

Soviet Black Sea Fleet Chernomorskiy flot , image = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet , dates = May 13, ...

into the

Russian Black Sea Fleet Chernomorskiy flot , image = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet , dates = May 13, ...

and the

Ukrainian Navy The Military Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Військо́во-морські́ си́ли Збро́йних сил Украї́ни, ВМС ЗСУ) is the maritime forces of Ukraine and one of the five branches of the Arme ...

. As a result, the two ships were brought out of storage, and received maintenance and equipment upgrades. Cushing and Drummond were transported to the Black Sea port city of

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

aboard the '' Ocean Freedom dry'' cargo ship, arriving on 21 October 2019. In Ukrainian service, ''Cushing'' was renamed to ''

Sloviansk Sloviansk ( uk, Слов'янськ, Sloviansk ; russian: Славянск, Slavyansk or ; prior to 1784 – Tor) is a city in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Slovyansk urban commun ...

'', in memory of the home town of sailors Roman Napriagila and Sergiy Mayboroda. The Mk38 naval autocannon and M2 machine guns were replaced by a Soviet-era 110-PM autocannon.

Sinking

On 3 March 2022, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, ''Sloviansk'' was conducting reconnaissance and patrol missions around the port cities of

Chornomorsk Chornomorsk ( uk, Чорномо́рськ, ), formerly Illichivsk (, translit. ''Illichivs'k''), is a city in Odesa Raion, Odesa Oblast (province) of south-western Ukraine, dependent on the Port of Chornomorsk. The city is located around the S ...

and Yuzhne. During this period, the vessel was reportedly sunk by a Russian

Kh-31 The Kh-31 (russian: Kha (Cyrillic), Х-31; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Russian air-to-surface missile carried by aircraft such as the MiG-29 or Su-27. It is capable of Mach number, Mach 3.5 and was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be la ...

anti-ship missile. The fate of the crew remains unknown.

References