Coast Guard

U. S. Coast Guard

The following is an excerpt from the November 2003 issue of AOPA Pilot Magazine page 123-124. The article is titled:“The Coast Guard’s Air Force“. Part of the article describes a HU-25 Enforcer helicopter chase of a go-fast drug smuggling boat headed for the Florida coast in August 1999. The barrels used on the .50 caliber sniper-type rifles in these helicopters were made by us and the rifles were built by Robar of Phoenix, Arizona. We first heard the story through the Coast Guard in 1999. “The lead Enforcer fired a warning shot over its bow – actually, 100 rounds from its M-240’s – but that didn’t get the boat’s attention. So the helicopter’s marksman fired two .50 caliber rounds from the on-board target rifle and destroyed the boat’s starboard engine. That slowed the boat briefly, but the captain kept going on one engine. The marksman took another couple of shots at the port engine and put that one out of commission.” The go-fast boat was dead in the water and a Coast Guard inflatable boat was deployed, drugs siezed and three suspects arrested.