Kazakhstan’s military will buy six retrofitted US Huey helicopters to build a naval and air presence in the Caspian Sea.

The Hueys are part of a contract signed by Kazakhstan in 2007 which carried an option to retrofit six more Hueys, according to Central Asia Newswire.

Kazakhstan is in need of a navy in the Caspian Sea to protect its growing petroleum-development infrastructure.

The navy’s main missions would be combating terrorism, piracy, smuggling and drug trafficking and conducting search and rescue operations in addition to protecting infrastructure.

Kazakhstan is also building patrol boats and buying larger corvettes for the northern Caspian with help from Russian, South Korean or Dutch companies.