Miami Herald Logo

Navy tests new weapons in the war on drugs | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Latest News

Navy tests new weapons in the war on drugs

By Cammy Clark

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 27, 2013 08:36 PM

On the flight deck of the HSV 2 Swift, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris received instructions Friday on how to launch the 13-pound drone that looks like a model airplane built by a teenager in the family garage.

“Raise it when we’re ready,” a civilian operator told the commander of the U.S. 4th Fleet. “It’s a piece of cake.”

Harris did as told, launching the Puma AE (all environment) — a waterproof, unmanned aircraft — into the vast blue yonder of the Florida Straits to track and provide real-time video of a go-fast boat in a mock drug smuggling operation.

“So easy, even an admiral can do it,” Harris joked.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

It was a test to see if the relatively low-cost drone, which runs on battery power, could be an alternative to manned aircraft such as the P-3 Orion, which requires a crew of seven and guzzles fuel.

The Navy is trying to get creative to continue its never-ending war on drugs during these tough economic times, in which its budget has been further squeezed by new mandatory cuts triggered by the recent federal sequester.

In March, the Navy announced the budget cuts were forcing it to stop the deployments of two of its frigates, the USS Gary and the USS Thach, that were patrolling the Caribbean and eastern Pacific for traffickers of drugs, people and guns.

“It’s the old saying attributed to Mr. [Winston] Churchill: ‘We’ve run out of money; it’s time to think,’ ” Harris said.

That’s why the 321-foot Swift also was carrying an unusual sight for a ship — a big white blimp that was moored next to the big X that marks the spot for helicopter landings.

This TIF-25K Tethered Aerostat had no markings on it because it was used for military operations in Afghanistan. But with the draw down of missions in that war, the military wants to find ways to repurpose the unmanned blimps that run on helium.

“We’ve only been at sea once before, and that was on a barge in one of the Great Lakes,” said Craig P. Laws, the U.S. Navy program manager for Raven Inc., the blimp’s private manufacturer based in South Dakota. “We used it for a scientific experiment, watching algae grow with a university. Flying from the flight deck of a Navy ship is new to us.”

While blimps and remote controlled airplanes have been around for decades; never before have they been combined for this sort of mission at sea. Part of the reason: the technology has greatly advanced (also becoming smaller and lighter) for the cameras, sensors and communication equipment they carry. “And obviously, necessity is the mother of invention,” Harris said.

It’s still a work in progress, but Harris is excited about the potential of the blimp and drone. Vessels like the Swift can increase its small boat detection capabilities from about five miles with its onboard radar, to 50 miles or so when the blimp and its F50 radar is raised to its maximum height of about 2,000 feet. The blimp also has a camera that can capture footage up to 15 miles away for big vessels.

And, weather permitting, the blimp can supply 24/7 monitoring. The P-3 must return within 10 hours for refueling and change of crews. The downside: there’s nobody armed in the blimp and drone that can force the smugglers to stop.

The drones are sent out only after a suspicious vehicle has been identified. “It gives a god’s-eye view,” said Craig Benson, director of business development for California-based AeroVironment Inc., which makes the Puma AE.

The Pumas can fly for about two hours and have the ability to sneak up on smugglers because they are quiet and look like birds, with a wingspan of nine feet. The hope is that its cameras will be able to capture evidence of smugglers trying to throw cocaine or marijuana overboard to avoid arrest and prosecution.

One Navy requirement of the Puma was for it to be able to land in salt water and float for four hours, Benson said.

That requirement was put to the test when the Puma came in for a landing on the flight deck Friday but sank quickly as it hit the exhaust gas thermal created by the ship. The remote control operator turned the plane sharply to the right to avoid hitting the large throng of media watching the demonstration. Gasps were heard as it crashed into the sea.

Harris shrugged. “The thing is going to float,” he said. And it did, retrieved more than 15 minutes later by the ship’s small boat. Another Puma was launched. Harris said he’d give the operator $1 if he landed it this time in the middle of the big X. And the operator did.

While the five- to seven-foot seas and winds of more than 20 knots forced the Coast Guard to call off a boarding demonstration, Harris said he was pleased at how the blimps radar and drone’s cameras tracked the Gotcha, a previously confiscated go-fast boat from a drug bust that was positioned offshore of Key West for Friday’s test.

The next step is to test the blimp and drone operationally in the southwestern Caribbean. This is being delayed a few days to “tweak some issues with the radar,” Harris said. “We’ve got to wait for the techs to arrive.”

If all goes well with the operational tests, Harris said the information will be passed up to “Big Navy,” who will decide if the blimp and drone will become part of its assets. The decision will be made in consultation with other agencies, including the Key West-based Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF), which oversees Operation Martillo for the United States.

While many people see the war on drugs as a losing battle, Harris and other defenders say the efforts are paying off, particularly since the United States has partnered with Colombia, France, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and several other countries in the joint Martillo mission.

Martillo is Spanish for hammer. Since the operation began in January 2012, it has seized about 200 metric tons of cocaine and 25,000 pounds of marijuana — a street value of approximately $3 billion, as well as $3.5 million in drug money. More than 340 suspected smugglers also have been detained, according to Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, public affairs officer with the U.S. 4th Fleet.

While the Puma was being tested Friday, word reached the crew of the Swift that the Coast Guard was offloading at the Miami Beach base an estimated $27 million worth of cocaine seized from a 68-foot fishing boat cruising through the western Caribbean Sea — exactly where the Swift is going next to conduct three weeks of operational testing of the blimp and drone.

That seizure occurred April 18. Two days later, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine crew on a P-3 made an even bigger bust after spotting a speed boat carrying more than 3,300 pounds of pure cocaine with a street value of about $242 million in open waters off Panama.

The P-3 crew notified Panama, which sent three of its law enforcement boats to capture what turned out to be Colombian smugglers.

About 67 percent of all U.S.-involved drug busts in the Caribbean are now the result of multiple nations working together.

“That’s a big increase in what it used to be,” Harris said.

Harris also hopes the blimp and drones may be less expensive alternatives for countries in the partnership that can’t afford fixed-wing aircraft for surveillance, detection and monitoring.

“I was just in Colombia talking about this very thing,” Harris said. “I showed them pictures on Facebook.”

  Comments  

Videos

Man attaches U.S. flag and banner to a crane before Trump rally in Sweetwater

Armed with a bat, robber demands cash at Fort Lauderdale Metro PCS

View More Video

Trending Stories

Haitian police arrest five Americans who claimed they were on a ‘government mission’

February 18, 2019 06:37 PM

Man arrested after climbing crane near FIU to ask Trump for mercy for Cuban exile bomber

February 18, 2019 08:44 AM

A Florida 6th-grader called the Pledge of Allegiance ‘racist.’ Then he got arrested.

February 18, 2019 08:59 AM

One dead in shooting near South Beach’s Ocean Drive

February 17, 2019 06:47 AM

Get to know Miami’s 2020 recruiting class: RB Don Chaney Jr. gives Canes a class leader

February 18, 2019 11:44 AM

Read Next

Armando Salguero

Rating Reggie McKenzie’s Oakland drafts a preview of what he can bring to Miami

By Armando Salguero

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 19, 2019 12:59 AM

The Miami Dolphins have added experienced personnel man Reggie McKenzie to the front office as a senior executive to help identify and add talent in the coming draft. But McKenzie’s record as the Oakland Raiders general manager was inconsistent.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE LATEST NEWS

Knight Foundation makes $300 million investment to strengthen local news, accountability

Business News

Knight Foundation makes $300 million investment to strengthen local news, accountability

February 19, 2019 05:00 AM
‘Objectionable smells,’ rodents and roaches shut down chain restaurants

Restaurant News & Reviews

‘Objectionable smells,’ rodents and roaches shut down chain restaurants

February 19, 2019 06:11 AM
Police: More than a dozen people rescued from SeaWorld ride

Latest News

Police: More than a dozen people rescued from SeaWorld ride

February 19, 2019 02:53 AM
Marlins open spring in full rebuild mode, but here are 6 reasons fans should feel good

Greg Cote

Marlins open spring in full rebuild mode, but here are 6 reasons fans should feel good

February 18, 2019 04:57 PM
UM women make biggest jump in AP Top 25 after historic road win over Louisville

University of Miami

UM women make biggest jump in AP Top 25 after historic road win over Louisville

February 18, 2019 01:31 PM
Coast Guard cites Watson Island charter boat for multiple violations

South Florida

Coast Guard cites Watson Island charter boat for multiple violations

February 18, 2019 09:43 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story