By: Geoff Ziezulewicz

A littoral combat ship is slated to deploy to the waters of U.S. Southern Command this year to battle drug smugglers, its top officer told lawmakers Thursday.

SOUTHCOM commander Adm. Craig Faller declared America’s opioid epidemic “a national security crisis” during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services committee and said an LCS will patrol South American and Caribbean waters to interdict illicit narcotics.

While 2017 and 2018 were record years for drug seizures in his command, Faller said much work remains to be done.

The admiral did not identify which LCS would undertake the mission but indicated it also could be available for exercises and other duties alongside partner nations the SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility, a sprawling command that sprawls across 31 countries and 16 dependencies and represents about one-sixth of the world’s landmass.

Faller praised the Coast Guard’s counter-narcotics efforts in South America and the Caribbean, but said he needs more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to take a bigger bite out of crime.

The 110 men and women of the Coast Guard cutter Forward deployed over Christmas and then spent part of their patrol without pay and contractor-provided parts due to the government shutdown, he said.

But they still seized 17 tons of cocaine, Faller told the lawmakers.

Read more

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/02/07/admiral-lcs-will-hunt-drug-smugglers/

00000