Coast Guard wants more fast boats and boarding parties as demand soars
Their use has risen dramatically under President Donald Trump’s policy of pursuing drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Kyle Rempfer
Published May 11, 2026 5:08 PM EDT
The Coast Guard plans to grow its specialized interdiction teams who hop onto fast-moving cocaine submarines and fast-rope down to oil tankers to make mid-ocean seizures, according to service officials and a fiscal 2027 budget proposal.
In all, the Coast Guard wants to spend about $80 million to add more than 650 personnel to its Deployable Specialized Forces units and set up a new Special Missions Command overseeing them. The teams, which train in both traditional law enforcement and tactics commonly associated with military special operations, have regularly deployed aboard Navy vessels and worked with Marine units over the past year.
Many teams that are part of the Coast Guard’s Deployable Specialized Forces were established after Sept. 11, 2001 as counter-terrorism units, and their use has risen dramatically under President Donald Trump’s policy of pursuing drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
A Coast Guard spokesman declined to disclose the number of personnel currently assigned to its Deployable Specialized Forces, though government reports have placed their manpower at roughly 2,000.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/coast-guard-special-missions-expands/
