The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has ral­lied the var­i­ous arms of law en­force­ment in the con­tin­ued fight against crime, which has re­sult­ed in greater ef­forts to im­prove mar­itime se­cu­ri­ty.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) had en­coun­tered chal­lenges with its naval fleet, Chief of De­fence Staff, Air Vice Mar­shal, Dar­ryl Daniel, yes­ter­day con­firmed, “Ap­proval has been re­ceived and is be­ing ac­tioned for the im­me­di­ate re­pair of some of our small­er ves­sels, and the ac­qui­si­tion of im­me­di­ate­ly avail­able ves­sels of ap­pro­pri­ate size and func­tion­abil­i­ty for use by the Coast Guard.”

Speak­ing dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Port-of-Spain, Daniel said this was be­ing done even as the cur­rent main­te­nance con­tracts which had been signed to re­fit the larg­er cap­i­tal as­sets are on­go­ing.

He added that the in­ten­tion is to “have these as­sets back in ser­vice with­in 18 months on a phased ba­sis.

Daniel as­sured that fol­low­ing this pe­ri­od, the eight larg­er ves­sels be­long­ing to the TTCG will be once again op­er­a­tional.

Mean­while, he said the process had al­so com­menced for ad­di­tion­al new naval as­sets to ad­dress the iden­ti­fied gaps the mar­itime do­main aware­ness and con­trol.

Pre-empt­ing ques­tions about the time­line of the ac­qui­si­tion of new as­sets and the re­fur­bish­ment and re­fit­ting of ex­ist­ing as­sets, Daniel said glob­al ship­ping chal­lenges had to be con­sid­ered, as items were not be­ing shipped on a time­ly ba­sis.

He said, “This con­tin­ues to im­pact the ac­qui­si­tion or the ar­rival of parts and spares to get our ves­sels back ser­vice­able.”

De­spite this, he as­sured the TTCG was ready to work along­side oth­er arms of law en­force­ment in the fight against crime.