Super-Fast Ship Set for Drug War Duty

**There's a new weapon in the war on drugs: The Stiletto ship, an experimental design that's garnered lots of praise but little in the way of traditional Pentagon backing during its development.

InsideDefense.com yesterday broke the news, though, that the ship is getting readied for its real-world debut.

The ship will leave its port at Norfolk, VA, at the end of May and arrive at the northern Colombian port city of Cartagena in early June, making four or five stops on its way south, according to Cdr. James Hruska, the
Stiletto project officer in the Pentagon’s Rapid Reaction Technology Office. . . .

**

Due to its shallow draft of merely 2.5 feet, the ship can maneuver very close to coastlines. And with a top speed of over 50 knots,
Stiletto could easily “outrun” the boats used by drug smugglers, Hruska said.

Stiletto will be unarmed, though; so, what is it good for?

The ship can launch a Rigid-hull Inflatable Boat, enabling the boarding of vessels at sea, Hruska said.

*Stiletto officials want to use an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle called “Silver Fox” onboard the Stiletto during the planned operations in South America, Hruska told *InsideDefense.com.
But the manufacturer, Advanced Ceramics Research of Tucson, AZ, had not yet agreed to loan the Pentagon a drone for the mission, he added.

One thing it cannot do, however, is find the crude submarines that are becoming increasingly popular among drug runners; Stiletto does not have a sonar system.

(Photo: DOD)