Black Hawk Helicopters

BLACK HAWK HELICOPTERS -- (Senate - July 10, 2006)

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, we have an interesting situation where the Department of Defense is requesting that seven Black Hawk helicopters that the U.S. Army owns but are detailed to the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Bahamas be taken out of the Bahamas. No doubt there is a need elsewhere in the world, perhaps in Operation Iraqi Freedom. But this Senator wants to make the case, as I did 2 weeks ago when we had the Defense authorization bill on the floor, that the United States Government needs to find some additional helicopters to replace those that are there for the purpose of interdiction of all kinds of contraband.

Indeed, we have experienced enormous success from having those seven helicopters in the last 5 years: 800 drug smugglers have been apprehended as a result of those helicopters being there; 25 tons of cocaine have been taken away from the drug smugglers; 82 tons of marijuana, as a result of the effectiveness of these helicopters. Of course, I am just speaking about the interdiction of contraband drugs, not even to speak of the interdiction of all of the human smuggling that is attempted into the United States through that route.

It might be instructive for us to know that when a similar situation was done elsewhere in the Caribbean, in Central America in the late 1990s, and seven helicopters were taken from Central America with a similar kind of mission, the incidence of drug smuggling rose precipitously. Of course, that is what will happen if these helicopters are not replaced.

Since the 1980s, these helicopters have made an enormous difference. For example, it is hard to believe the statistic I am going to tell you, but 80 percent of all the cocaine that was smuggled into this country came through that region of the Atlantic, the Bahamas and the Turks and the Caicos, back in the 1980s. That percentage of the total cocaine smuggled into the country has been reduced to 10 percent. So the proof is in the pudding. The success is there.

Two weeks ago when we had the Defense authorization bill on the floor, I added an amendment that said that the U.S. Government should come up with a replacement for those helicopters. If they are needed elsewhere, fine; that is, the war on terror. We also have a war on terror and a war to defend the homeland as well. That is right here. That is the southern sector off the shores of the Southern United States.

It is my hope that the Defense Department will take very seriously the Defense authorization bill that makes that statement to the U.S. Government. Surely in the inventory of the entire U.S. Government, there are seven helicopters that can replace the ones being taken out and sent to Iraq. The success of our interdiction and the protection of our homeland is at stake.

I yield the floor.

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