LCS of the US Navy as "migrant hunters" - find lots of coke

The US Navy finally seems to have found an operational niche for the unloved LCS (Littoral Combat Ships) of the Freedom and Independence class: The hunt for drug smugglers in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. Although expensive and difficult to maintain, the LCSs have the advantage of high manoeuvrability and high speeds of 40 to 50 knots thanks to their water jet propulsion. Banished to the Caribbean by presidential order - not to mention the unnamed Gulf of Mexico - and deployed there to support the Coast Guard in securing national borders against migration, the "Minneapolis-Saint Paul" did not bring in a single person within a few days, but did bring in cocaine and marijuana worth around €10 million and €3 million respectively. In 2021, "Wichita" and "Sioux City" had already intercepted around 20 and 25 million euros worth of illegal drugs in the same area. The "Gabrielle Giffords" (Independence) was even able to report a cocaine catch with a market value of 115 million euros in 2020. That sounds good, but it's all just bycatch: the US Coast Guard cutters "Stone" and "James" (new Legend class, 127 metres, 4,000 tonnes), which actually specialise in these tasks, each had a "haul" of around 550 million euros in March/April 2025! A bland aftertaste: the US Navy's LCSs have to embark a Coast Guard enforcement team for this task and fly the Coast Guard flag if they actively intervene in order to be legitimised. This has led to long threads of sarcastic comments on social media - until the abbreviation LCS was changed to "Litterally Chasing Smugglers"!