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By
RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor
New Coast Guard
aircraft, tactics, and rules of engagement have led to a series of
successful intercepts of drug-running "go-fast" boats, marking
what White House and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials say is
a major turning point in the U.S. war against illegal drugs.
The Coast Guard
has unveiled a new armed helicopter, the MH-90 Enforcer, and has flown
it to intercept the 70-knot go-fast boats that have been easily eluding
Coast Guard cutters since drug runners introduced the boats into service
in 1995.
The Coast Guard
also has an-nounced a change in its rules of engagement, which now allow
Coast Guard aircraft to engage drug-running vessels with armed force, an
option previously available only to Coast Guard cutters and boarding
parties. Armed Coast Guard aircraft have not been used in
law-enforcement roles since the 1920s, when they were deployed against
the "rum-runners" of the Prohibition era.
The MH-90 was
introduced to the public by DOT Secretary Rodney E. Slater at a press
conference held in Washington, D.C.; Barry McCaffrey, director of the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Coast Guard
Commandant Adm. James M. Loy also participated in the press conference.
Small
Arms and Sting Balls
An all-weather,
short-range, single-rotor shipboard helicopter, the MH-90, is a
militarized version of the MD 900 helicopter built by MD Helicopters
Corporation. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney 206(D) turboshaft engine
and designed with a NOTAR (no-tail-rotor) configuration, it can cruise
at 120 knots for 2.5 hours. The 6,500-pound helicopter is equipped with
weather radar, a Mk III forward-looking infrared system (with
video-recording capability), night-vision devices, an external sling
capable of lifting 1,500 pounds, and a rescue hoist capable of lifting
600 pounds. The crew consists of two pilots and one crewman. The
crewman's principal duties include: (a) firing an M240G 7.62mm machine
gun (swivel-mounted at the portside cabin door) and/or a hand-held
laser-sighted .50-caliber rifle; and (b) operating hand-held video and
photographic equipment. MD Helicopters provides logistic support for the
Enforcers.
The go-fast
boats--30 to 45 feet in length and capable of ranging up to 1,300
miles--are faster than the so-called "cigarette" boats and
represent a dramatic escalation in the cat-and-mouse drug-interdiction
war. U.S. officials calculated that go-fast boats--which made an
estimated 400 transits last year--were used to smuggle 61 percent of the
illegal drugs entering the United States in 1997 and 85 percent in 1998.
Use of the go-fast boats gave the smugglers an 85 percent success rate,
the officials said.
During
operations in August and September, the MH-90s--which operate from
medium- or high-endurance cutters working in concert with 38-foot
57-knot RHIBs (rigid-hull inflatable boats)--intercepted go-fast boats
on four occasions. On some missions, the M240G machine gun was used to
fire warning shots across the bow, after which the .50-caliber rifle was
used to disable the boat's engines. The crew also deployed "sting
balls"--small grenades that dispense rubber pellets.
The MH-90 also
is able to drop a net designed to disable the boat's propellers. The
MH-90's armament is intended to be nonlethal--to disable the boats
and/or otherwise dissuade the go-fast crews from completing their runs.
Loy credited
the Coast Guard's bold tactics--introduced in Operation New
Frontier--with intercepting 53 tons of drugs, including a record amount
of cocaine, since October 1998. The August and September operations
resulted in the seizure of more than 6,000 pounds of cocaine and
marijuana.
The Coast Guard
currently operates two leased MH-90s, and plans to expand its MH-90
fleet to six or eight aircraft. The two leased Enforcers are operated by
Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron 10 (HITRON-10), based at the
Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala.--but scheduled to
relocate to Jacksonville, Fla., during fiscal year 2000. HITRON-10
represents a Coast Guard organizational anomaly; since the end of World
War II (when Coast Guard Patrol Bombing Squadron 6 conducted
antisubmarine patrols from Iceland), Coast Guard aviation assets have
been assigned to air stations, not to squadrons.
McCaffrey was
enthusiastic about the Coast Guard's new armed helicopters. "We
congratulate the Coast Guard for using a successful systems approach to
field helicopters, nonlethal technology, and command-and-control
equipment to meet the threat," he said. Speaking of the go-fast
boats, he added, "We will make them disappear."
"Thanks to
the brave and dedicated men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard, we are
seeing a decline in drug use," said Slater. "Their vigilance
and tireless commitment is making a difference to the American
people." |
