Tag Archives: combat

Not bad for a narcosubmarino

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Spanish authorities arrested two citizens of Ecuador near the beach of O Foxo, Galicia on 24 November. Their ride? A scuttled 66-foot narco submarine carrying over three tons of coke. It is believed to be the first such craft to be seized from Latin America in Europe.

The Guardia Civil is currently trying to figure out if it was launched from a mother ship or made the entire journey on its own. Keep in mind that it is roughly 5,000 miles from the northeast tip of South America to Spain in a straight line. With an average speed of about 10 knots, said narco boat likely took more than three weeks to make a solo crossing only to be seen at the end of its run after things didn’t work out.

Meanwhile, the USCG recently popped a similar such craft in the Eastern Pacific, where they are increasingly common. How long before these are seen in asymmetric warfare by users carrying dirty bombs into a vital port or chokepoint?

Yikes

U.S. Coast Guard boarding team members climb aboard a suspected smuggling vessel in September. Crews intercepted a drug-laden, 40-foot self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) in the Eastern Pacific carrying approximately 12,000 pounds of cocaine, worth over $165 million and apprehended four suspected drug smugglers. (U.S. Coast Guard Photo)

The State of The Infantry

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Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue, U.S. Army Infantry School Commandant, details how Fort Benning and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command is improving the Soldier Lethality with a new marksmanship qualification course, a test pilot to extend OSUT and by incorporating cyber and space technology into urban (and subterranean) combat training.

Of course, it would be nice if 10 percent of M4A1s out there didn’t fire when changing the selector switch, but hey.

Happy birthday, Lee

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The great Lee Marvin would be 94 today.

Here he is seen as Sgt. Turk in the “Bridge at Chalons” episode of Combat! (1963)

And if he looks natural with that Garand, he came about it honestly.

Leaving school at 18 to enlist in the Marines after Pearl Harbor, this member of The Greatest Generation was seriously wounded while a part of the 24th Marines during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan in 1944 and spent over a year in recovery before he was medically discharged.

All tricks, no treats: Coasties chalk up another sneaky narco sub, making 43 total

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The Alameda, California-based USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751), one of the new 418-foot Legend-class National Security Cutters, offloaded 39,000 pounds of cocaine Thursday at Naval Base San Diego– including a large bust from a narco sub.

The self-propelled semi-submersible, or SPSS, was stopped in the Pacific Ocean off Central America on September 6.

Upon sighting the vessel, the cutter launched two fast pursuit boats with boarding teams and an armed helicopter crew to interdict the SPSS. Five suspects, apprehended by the Coasties (where are you going to go in open ocean?) attempted to scuttle the dope boat as water filled the smuggler to just below the helm.

Waesche crew members boarded the sinking vessel and were able to dewater it using portable pumps, allowing boarding officers to safely remove over 5,600 pounds of cocaine from the SPSS. It is the sixth such submersible captured this year by the service and the 43rd total.

According to a fact sheet from the service, Coast Guardsmen apprehended a total 585 suspected drug smugglers in Fiscal Year 2016– a new record for the service, up from 503 suspected drug smugglers last year.