Frigates are, hands-down, the heavy hitter in the Navy's fight to stop 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 the frigates' service coming to an end this summer, which could cripple drug interdiction efforts in the coming year. That's why planners are scrambling to assemble a hodgepodge of auxiliary ships to take on the mission until the littoral combat ships arrive in sufficient numbers.
Frigates were involved in "the vast majority" of Navy interdictions over the past five years, said Capt. Juan Hogan, deputy director of the 4th Fleet Maritime Operations Center. According his figures, Oliver Hazard Perry-class ships were also responsible for 76 percent of the 26,000 pounds of marijuana seized.