The centerpiece of a small fleet donated to Kazakhstan by the United States is this 42-foot, aluminum-hulled Dauntless-class patrol boat completed by SeaArk Marine, Monticello, Arkansas, in November 1995 and shipped to the Kazakhstan Navy's main base at Aktau on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea along with five militarized Boston Whalers. Unusually, the craft were funded by the Defense Nuclear Agency for potential use in interdicting nuclear waste smuggling. Kazakhstan's fleet, which was formally inaugurated on 17 August 1996, also has a small base at Aral'sk on the shrinking Aral Sea. Germany donated the new navy's largest combatants, four 69.6-ton patrol boats originally completed in 1952-53 for the U.S. Navy's Weser River Patrol, while Russia has promised three small mine sweepers and two 39-ton Zhuk-class patrol boats. Kazakhstan itself has built two 13ton patrol launches and has laid down a Zhuk of its own at Ural'sk.
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