Counter-Drug Operations To Take Hit As Last Of Frigates Leave Service

The pending retirement of the final frigate in the U.S. Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry class is expected to hurt counter-drug operations since replacements will not be immediately available, reports the Navy Times.

Kauffman, the last of the warships, is scheduled to be decommissioned in October. The frigates in the class seized 98 percent of the 164 metric tons of cocaine, worth about $3.2 billion, that the Navy captured over the last five years.

Service planners are working to...