Frigate retirements likely to hamper drug busts at sea

Frigates are, hands-down, the heavy hitter in the Navy's fight to stop against drug traffickers at sea. They nabbed 98 percent of the 164 metric tons of cocaine, valued at $3.2 billion, that Navy ships have seized in the last five years.

But with the frigates' service is coming to an end this summer, which could The accelerated pending retirement of frigates could cripple drug interdiction efforts in the coming year. That's why and so planners are scrambling to assemble a hodgepodge of auxiliary ships to take on the mission until the littoral combat ships arrive in sufficient numbers. but the long-term replacement will likely provide the boost top leaders have sought for years.

Frigates were involved in "the vast majority" of Navy interdictions over the past five years, said Capt. Juan Hogan, deputy director of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/ U.S. 4th Fleet Deputy Maritime Operations Center. According his figures, Oliver Hazard Perry-class ships were also In that time, Navy surface vessels nabbed 164 metric tons of cocaine valued at $3.2 billion, and frigates were responsible for 98 percent of that total. Similarly, the class is responsible for 76 percent of the 26,000 pounds of marijuana seized, and every bit of 1.32 kilograms of heroin that was seized.

The guided-missile frigate Kauffman is the latest to add to those totals. Kauffman's crew of 17 officers and 198 sailors, and its embarked Coast Guard team, on May 16 nabbed 3,900 pounds of cocaine valued at $59 million, and detained three crewmembers. The ship, which has been involved in Operation Martillo counter-drug patrols, final deployment of the an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, and will be the last ship of its class. The frigate is to be decommissioned in October.

The JHSV will begin its second deployment in the region in mid-June. While it's an excellent surveillance platform, does a good job of maintaining Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, the JHSV is not nearly as good as a frigate or LCS when it comes to chasing down drug dealers, said Bryan Clark, a defense expertsenior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. And surveillance is not lacking in the war on drugs. E-2C Hawkeyes and P-3 Orions regularly conduct patrols across the region; what commanders lack are vessels that can intercept. The problem is so bad that Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft in January told lawmakers that intelligence teams track 80 percent of drugs coming into the country by sea, but there are only enough ships to stop 20 percent.

That free ride will end for many traffickers when once the Navy sees four littoral combat ships start hitting the fleet each year, Clark said. "You will see a rapid increase in the number of ships able to go down there," he said. "You will go from famine to feast, in this case."

The LCS can (theoretically) deploy rigid inflatable boatsor RHIBs, faster than a frigate and has plenty of helicopter capacity — a must for interdiction missions. The continuous presence of multiple LCS vessels will be aided by having them homeport in Mayport, Florida, Clark said.

Even if LCS is able to provide all that she promises, the gap that exists between frigate and LCS operations pales to the chasm would be insignificant compared to the lack of capability that would result from another round of sequestration, which in 2013 greatly reduced the number of frigate patrols in 4th Fleet.

These funding cuts, essentially reducing the Navy's $161 billion annual budget by $13 billion, are impending in 2016 unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift spending caps. efense Department would be spared these cuts under the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act passed by lawmakers. But President Obama has threatened to veto the NDAA and future defense spending bills because he does not feel the Pentagon should be excluded from the government-wide spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act.

Marine Gen. John Kelly, the head of Southern Command, testified in March that in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 12, said sequestration would be "a catastrophe.'

Troops and law enforcement at SOUTHCOM Service membersunder his command seized a total of 158 metric tons of cocaine last year. If sequestration hits, the general said he would be lucky to get 20 tons.

The frigates' what portion of that total: was frigates responsible?