Pubdate: Mon, 09 Nov 2009
Source: Lookout (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 The Lookout
Contact:  http://www.lookoutnewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1178
Page: 7
Author: Shelley Lipke

CALGARY ON THE HUNT FOR DRUGS

As HMCS Calgary transited north through the waters off South and 
Central America during Southploy, it participated in a multinational 
anti-narcotics mission led by U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South 
(JIATF-S).

During this mission Guatemalan and American Forces captured a drug 
boat housing 10 metric tonnes of cocaine valued at $250 million. The 
Oct. 22 bust left Calgary's crew eager to locate other drug vessels 
known to be in the area.

"This was the largest drug bust in Guatemalan history," said Cdr 
William Quinn, ship's commanding officer. "The U.S. Coast Guard 
transported the four crew members and the drug boat to shore to hand 
over to Guatemalan authorities."

Through JIATF-South assets, Calgary's command team learned there were 
other drug boats in the area and the ship was tasked to track and 
report any contacts of interest to JIATF-S.

"We do a lot of training for these kinds of events and the crew was 
excited to be involved in this mission," said Cdr Quinn.

The boats the drug smugglers use to transport the drugs to North 
America are self propelled semi submersibles (SPSS). With only six 
inches of freeboard and a snorkel above water, they have an extremely 
low profile in the water and are difficult to spot.

"These boats are becoming much more common these days as a method of 
drug smuggling. They have a very small radar cross section and are 
especially hard to detect in any kind of sea state," said Cdr Quinn. 
"The most common way of detecting them is visually," he said.

Earlier in the deployment, during Panamax 2009, one of the largest 
multinational training exercises in the world off Panama, Calgary 
searched for a SPSS that was created for the exercise.

"Out of the ships involved in the search, we used visual aids and 
radar to look for the boat and ended up being the first to find it 
from the bridge," said Cdr Quinn. "This was good training for the 
crew to familiarize them with search techniques. It was very exciting 
to find one then, and the ship's company were even more excited to be 
involved in trying to find a real one once we learned several had 
been detected in the waters we were in."

Calgary sailed under their navigation plan and provided whatever 
contributions they could to JIATF-S as they transited.

"We were able to expand our surveillance area by using our helicopter 
and we investigated numerous contacts in our vicinity, but they were 
all legitimate fishing vessels or pleasure craft," said Cdr Quinn.

Each day Calgary's Sea King helicopter took to the air conducting 
thorough searches of coordinates where the boats were last reported.

While Calgary was unsuccessful in locating any of the boats, Cdr 
Quinn said it was a valuable experience for the crew. "It was 
exciting to be involved in this and participate in the search for a 
vessel that resulted in such a large drug bust."

JIATF-S is an ongoing mission for the U.S. Navy, and it's likely that 
other Canadian ships will participate in the future, he said.

As Calgary sails to Esquimalt for a late November arrival, it will 
conduct a missile exercise on Nov. 3 to test the Evolved Sea Sparrow 
Missile in a tactical scenario. Then on Nov. 10 in San Diego several 
family members will be welcomed aboard for a Tiger Cruise to reunite 
with loved ones and sail back to Esquimalt together. During the sail 
home the ship will participate in a Task Force Group Exercise (TGEX) 
with HMC Ships Algonquin and Protecteur.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart