The Freedom-variant littoral fight ship USS Sioux Metropolis (LCS 11) returned to its homeport of Naval Station Mayport, Dec. 17, 2021, after finishing its deployment to the U.S. 4th Fleet space of accountability. Sioux Metropolis, with the help of the embarked U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Regulation Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 102, disrupted roughly 3,360 kilograms of cocaine, which has an estimated road worth of over $235 million. Fourteen suspected drug traffickers had been faraway from the narcotics commerce all through the mission. Sioux Metropolis (Gold Crew), together with the “Sea Knights” of Helicopter Sea Fight Squadron (HSC) 22, Detachment 4, deployed on Sept. 7, 2021, in help of U.S. Southern Command and Joint Interagency Process Pressure South’s mission, which incorporates counter-illicit drug trafficking missions within the Caribbean.
All through the deployment, Sioux Metropolis partnered with different U.S. Navy ships, in addition to quite a few U.S. businesses from the Departments of Protection, Justice, and Homeland Safety, within the effort to fight transnational organized crime. All through its deployment, Sioux Metropolis traveled over 14,000 nautical miles and visited 4 totally different ports, together with San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sioux Metropolis was the primary littoral fight ship to go to San Juan, establishing optimistic ties with the individuals of San Juan and paving the best way for extra littoral fight ships to go to sooner or later.
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“This staff got down to make deployment nice, and we succeeded,” mentioned Cmdr. Brad Tonder, commanding officer of Sioux Metropolis. “We executed our mission, seizing or disrupting the circulate of over $230M in narcotics. We skilled and elevated interoperability with our associate nations and normalized LCS capabilities by working the ship as we do in our simulators. USS Sioux Metropolis is an especially succesful platform, and our Sailors are one of the best within the Fleet. I couldn’t be extra pleased with this ship and crew.”
“Visiting historic websites that signify little-known elements of American historical past, whereas forming nice bonds with locals, was superb, and I hope extra Sailors will get to have the same expertise sooner or later,” mentioned Culinary Specialist Seaman Mya Howard.
Sioux Metropolis additionally had the dignity of conducting a 21-gun salute in honor of Statia Day, a nationwide vacation celebrated on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. The vacation celebrates the “first salute” when Sint Eustatius, regionally referred to as Statia, grew to become the primary nation to acknowledge america as a nation 245 years in the past when after the U.S. declared independence, a Continental Navy ship fired a gun salute upon getting into the harbor, and the island, by order of the Dutch governor, returned the salute. The ship additionally performed a bilateral maritime interdiction train with the Dominican Republic to strengthen partnerships and construct interoperability between forces. U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet helps U.S. Southern Command’s joint and mixed navy operations by using maritime forces in cooperative maritime safety operations to keep up entry, improve interoperability, and construct enduring partnerships to boost regional safety and promote peace, stability, and prosperity within the Caribbean, Central and South American area.
