Greece Arms Ex-USCG Island-Class Cutters With LIONFISH 20 Remote Guns

MSI Defense Solutions announced on October 22, 2026, that it has completed the integration of a Leonardo LIONFISH 20 remote weapon station aboard a decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard Island-class cutter now being transferred to the Hellenic Navy under a Foreign Military Sales program managed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The LIONFISH 20 is a stabilized, remotely operated naval gun built around a 20mm machine gun paired with a coaxial sensor suite: a daylight camera, an infrared sensor and a laser rangefinder. From a remote console, the system supports autonomous surveillance, target identification and precision aiming without exposing a crew member on deck. A photo caption released with the announcement confirms the systems have been fitted aboard two Island-class vessels bound for Greece’s navy.

Fitting the gun required structural reinforcement of the hull, changes to the turret mounting, supporting electronics work and an upgrade to the command-and-control station. MSI says it carried out load analysis, recoil force assessment, sea-state modeling and vessel stability calculations, with testing and evaluation conducted outside the continental United States (OCONUS) ahead of delivery.

“This program represents a proven, repeatable capability to modernize legacy naval platforms,” said Nguyen Trinh, CEO and President of MSI Defense Solutions. The company states it has been performing this class of maritime weapons integration since 2021. Neither a contract value nor a delivery date was disclosed in the announcement.

Four Island-class coastal patrol vessels entered Hellenic Navy service in January 2025, and the cutter covered in this latest announcement appears to be part of that broader transfer effort. The same LIONFISH family of remote gun systems is already installed aboard Greece’s new FDI HN-class frigates, suggesting Athens is standardizing on a common remote weapon station across different hull classes rather than running separate procurement tracks for each.

Notably, MSI’s press materials use “cutters” in the plural in the headline and introduction, but the body text refers to a single platform having completed integration. Read alongside the photo caption confirming two Island-class ships now carry the system, this points to a phased rollout in which at least one additional hull may still be mid-integration or scheduled for a later phase.

The LIONFISH 20 occupies a lower-cost tier compared with larger-caliber naval gun systems, trading reach and punch for a lighter footprint and reduced crew training requirements, while still giving small patrol hulls a credible deterrent against fast boats and small unmanned surface threats. MSI’s integration model — adding modern sensor and weapon packages onto existing legacy hulls rather than building new ships — reflects a broader pattern among Western navies seeking to expand armed patrol capacity without the cost and lead time of new construction.

Arming coastal patrol flotillas is not unique to Greece; several NATO allies along the alliance’s southern flank have taken retired U.S. Coast Guard platforms through the same FMS channel and modernized them in similar fashion. No single transfer of this kind shifts the regional balance on its own, but the cumulative effect over time is a steady increase in allied coastal security capacity in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, where these vessels are expected to support patrol, maritime traffic monitoring and irregular migration control missions.

Naval News, which first reported the integration, did not specify an exact delivery date for the upgraded cutter. Once MSI’s OCONUS testing is finalized, the vessel is expected to ship to Greece. Whether additional Island-class hulls receive the same armament, or whether the program extends to other FMS recipients, remains to be seen in the coming months.

Sources:

• Naval News, “MSI Defense Integrates LIONFISH 20 Weapon Systems on Ex-USCG Cutters for Hellenic Navy,” October 22, 2026, https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2026/10/msi-defense-lionfish-20-hellenic-navy/ — primary source for technical details and the CEO quote.