The sun is barely rising at 0500. Seas are calm with light winds, as are typical in the Eastern Pacific. The lookout on board a U.S. Navy ship sights a small contact approximately 5 miles away. The surface tracker confirms the contact, which is almost lost in the sea clutter on his radar screen. The small hull has not yet revealed its profile in the growing sunlight; it is difficult to see even with the best optics. A rapid course change is made and the officer of the deck says the words that start what will become a 12-hour evolution: "Go-fast, that's a go-fast!" The boarding team is called away and the ship heels heavily in a turn on its way to flank speed.
The tracker notes, "Contact making 31 knots and increasing." The rooster tail behind the gutted scarab hull is readily identifiable, with three 200-horsepower outboards working in unison to offer the go-fast's best defense—speed. "Contact is jettisoning fuel drums; speed is increasing; range 6,000 yards and increasing." In minutes, the ship's helicopter—already airborne on a dawn patrol—arrives. "We have a confirmed go-fast that refuses signals to stop. Speed of contact is steady at 38 knots." Hours later, the Navy's quarry is no longer in range and the helicopter must return to the ship for refueling.
In recent years, the difficulties of stopping high-speed narcotics-smuggling vessels (go-fasts) have increased steadily. For Navy surface combatants engaged in counterdrug operations, intercepting and stopping these craft can stretch the capabilities of ships and crews. Embarked helicopters typically are the first to arrive and they vector the ship to the suspect vessel. If the combatant in pursuit is able to intercept the go-fast and get in the correct relative position, permission to fire warning shots and disabling fire from her .50-caliber machine gun (or larger deck guns) may be granted.
Unlike the ships in which they are embarked, however, Navy helicopter crews are not permitted to use weapons to stop fleeing vessels, notwithstanding shifts in tactical control to the Coast Guard during law enforcement phases of an operation. The effectiveness of Navy-Coast Guard counterdrug operations could be improved dramatically by permitting Coast Guard precision marksmen to deliver warning and disabling fire from Navy helicopters as well as surface ships.
Legal Restrictions
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits Department of Defense (DoD) personnel from participating directly in law enforcement activities. At the same time, Navy ships can support intercepts, boardings, search and seizures, and arrests that are performed by embarked Coast Guard law enforcement detachments (LEDets). The law's provisions are satisfied by the process of shifting tactical control of Navy ships. For example, during the detection and monitoring phases of counterdrug operations, ships remain under tactical control of their respective joint interagency task force, a DoD command specifically created for that purpose. When the situation dictates a transition from the detecting and monitoring phase to the law enforcement phase, the ship shifts tactical control to the appropriate Coast Guard district. This allows subsequent actions to fall under the command and control of an organization with law enforcement authority, thereby satisfying the requirements of posse comitatus.
Under the U.S. Code, LEDets embarked in Navy ships under tactical control of a Coast Guard district have the authority to use nonlethal fire (warning and disabling) while attempting to stop fleeing suspect vessels when other methods have failed. The standard procedure for such evolutions is to draw abreast of the fleeing vessel and use .50-caliber machine-gun fire for warning shots. As a last resort, fire is directed at the vessel's engines or rudder system.
Unfortunately, legal issues have prevented Navy aircraft from delivering these fires, apparently because such action was deemed to be overly aggressive. Nonetheless, according to Title 14 of the U.S. Code, naval aircraft with embarked Coast Guard personnel were specifically authorized to deliver fires for a limited observation period that ended in September 2001. Adoption of a permanent code regarding this issue has been proposed by the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations and is due for congressional action soon.
A Proven Technique
Since commencement of Operation New Frontier in 1999, Coast Guard helicopters have been used to intercept fleeing go-fasts. In accordance with procedures established during New Frontier, they exert a continuum of force that increases incrementally from verbal commands, to less intrusive technologies not involving ordnance, to warning shots and disabling fire. Warning shots are delivered with machine guns; flight mechanics deliver disabling fire with .50-caliber sniper rifles. These tactics have been 100% successful to date: 17 intercepts (out of 17 chases) that resulted in seizures of huge amounts of cocaine and marijuana valued at $1.3 billion.'
The Navy also employs marksmen from helicopters. Its units operate from light airborne multipurpose system (LAMPS) helicopters in support of maritime interdiction operations in the Arabian Gulf. Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) marksmen on the LAMPS aircraft provide cover for boarding teams during high-risk evolutions. The unique command-and-control capabilities of the LAMPS, mobility of the helicopter, and accuracy of the SEAL sniper are an ideal combination for a mission that requires limited and precise applications of force.
The marriage of Coast Guard marksmen and Navy LAMPS helicopters would provide a similar capability to the U.S. counterdrug effort. During missions, the marksman would be in continuous secure-voice communication with the LEDet officer-in-charge (OIC) and the ship's commanding officer (CO), who could oversee the situation closely. In addition, the CO and LEDet OIC would be monitoring real-time forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery of the suspect vessel transmitted from the helicopter. Thus, the chain of command could maintain continuous supervision.
The Best Tool
Current policy specifies the .50-caliber heavy machine gun as the weapon for delivering disabling fire from ships. But as Operation New Frontier demonstrates, there is a more precise tool for hitting a small target when there is little margin for error. For the accuracy, penetration, and destructive effect needed to disable vessels, the M-82A1 .50-caliber precision rifle is ideal. Avid users include Navy SEALs, Army paratroops, and Air Force explosive ordnance demolition units. The semiautomatic M-82A1 has a 10-round magazine and an effective range of 1,850 meters. Because of its portability, ease of maintenance, and ready availability, it is the preferred weapon for Coast Guard LEDets.
Aside from cutting the time needed for chases and increasing ranges at which smugglers can be intercepted and stopped, precision disabling fire from Navy LAMPS helicopters would offer fewer risks than current practices. The SH-60 Seahawk helicopter has the agility to take positions for firing on a moving go-fast while providing a stable platform for marksmen at ranges that give them clear visibility of people on board the evading craft. There would be much less likelihood of killing or wounding go-fast crewmen with errant rounds.
Conclusions
Precision marksmanship from Navy helicopters is essential to the conduct of effective and safe counterdrug operations. Concerns that warning and disabling fire from aircraft might escalate go-fast encounters into wild gunfights have been for naught. Operation New Frontier forces have never received return fire. During operations that led to numerous seizures and arrests, the helicopters fired warning and disabling shots without opposition.
Navy combatants and embarked Coast Guard law enforcement detachments should have the best means available to accomplish their missions—Navy helicopters and the M-82A1 rifle. Statutory relief and small investments in training and equipment will yield significant dividends.
Lieutenant (junior grade) O’Neill is the officer-in-charge of Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 409. Lieutenant Commander Robinson is assigned to Light Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 42.