Frigates: The Right Tool for the Job
By Jerry Hendrix
April 6, 2020 6:30 AM
With the Navy lacking a well-balanced fleet, the U.S. must rely on destroyers to do the job of frigates.
In announcing a major initiative to combat drug trafficking in the Pacific and Caribbean and to defend the United States against the threat posed by the Maduro regime and associated drug cartels, the U.S. government is making the right move. But the assets chosen, in particular the assignment of three destroyers, seem to be the wrong tools for the job. It’s as if the nation had decided to use a farm tractor to mow the front yard.
At an April 2 White House briefing announcing the initiative, President Trump was joined by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, national-security adviser Robert O’Brien, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday, who came together despite social-distancing guidelines to present a united front against Maduro and other South American and Central American drug traffickers. The drug cartels are seeking to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, counting on the United States to be too distracted by the crisis to stop an increased flow of illegal drugs into the country. Nicolás Maduro, the illegitimate leader of an illegitimate government, was specifically called out as being part of a narco-terrorist conspiracy that is responsible, according to the White House’s statement, for smuggling some 250 tons of cocaine into the United States, with at least half of that arriving by sea. In response, the Navy will be assigning three destroyers, a littoral combat ship, and a detachment of P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft to the U.S. Southern Command to assist with this mission.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/us-navy-needs-frigates-well-balanced-fleet/#slide-1
