Chronically underfunded and under-resourced U.S. Southern Command will finally be getting more ships and other assets on a rotational basis to counter high-seas drug trafficking and the growing influence of Russia and China in Latin America, the head of the command said Wednesday.
There will be an "enhanced presence of ships" and an overall increase in forces in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility, which covers the Caribbean to Antarctica, Adm. Craig Faller said.
As America pivots to face China and Russia, with CENTCOM and AFRICOM under pressure to lose assets for an era of great power competition, I assumed SOUTHCOM would be in even worse shape, with the only hope being The SOUTHCOM Queen modularized auxiliary cruiser.
