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Stiletto to deploy on anti-drug cruise

Sailors, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen are to deploy June 13 aboard the Pentagon’s experimental high-speed boat Stiletto on a new counterdrug mission in the Caribbean, 4th Fleet announced Friday.

The Stiletto, now berthed at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., will spend the summer patrolling for smugglers under the command of Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-South, the Key West, Fla.-based command charged with stopping the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S.

It will be Stiletto’s second counter-drug deployment since the Defense Department acquired the boat in 2006; it’s well suited to intercepting high-speed drug-carriers. The Stiletto interdicted its first smugglers in the Straits of Florida last August.

Stiletto’s M-shaped hull and high powered engines mean it can hit speeds of 50 knots, the Navy says; it has a stern ramp for launching and recovering small inflatable boats, and can be outfitted with small unmanned aircraft.