The Royal Navy has deployed one Frigate and one Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tanker to the Caribbean for the 2008 Hurricane season from June 2008 to November 2008. Outside of the core hurricane season, the RN deploys one Royal Fleet Auxiliary ‘Bay’ Class Landing Ship Dock. In both instances, the primary roles of the ships are to provide reassurance to the Overseas Territories as well as Humanitarian and Disaster relief training to local organisations, and Humanitarian and Disaster relief as co-ordinated with FCO and DFID. Concurrently, RN units contribute to the counter-narcotics and all periods at sea are devoted to Maritime Security in the round.
We do not deploy military assets dedicated specifically to counter-narcotic activities. Military forces are, however, made available upon request, when operational commitments and resources allow, to support the counter drugs activities of the law enforcement agencies, in this case, the Joint Inter Agency Task Force.
The following table shows British helicopters deployed with Atlantic Patrol Task (North) which covers the Caribbean. It should be noted that the primary purpose of this task is the promotion of British interests in the region and the security of the overseas territories rather than counter-narcotics operations.
Aircraft type Number June 2006 to January 2007 Lynx 2 February 2007 Lynx 1 March 2007 to June 2007 SeaKing Mk 7 ASAC 3 Merlin 2 Lynx 1 July 2007 to November 2007 Lynx 2 December 2007 to June 2008 Lynx 1
Royal Navy units do not lead counter narcotic operations in the Caribbean. Counter narcotic operations are conducted under the auspices of Joint Interagency Task Force (South) who do not log this information.
RN units predominately from the RN Atlantic Patrol Task (North) co-operate with US Coast Guard under a Memorandum of Understanding between the RN and the Joint Interagency Task Force (South) based at Key West, Florida.