US Navy USS Sioux City littoral combat ship is deployed in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific to counter illicit drug trafficking.

According to pictures released by the U.S. DoD on September 3, 2020, the Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Sioux City (LCS 11) is deployed to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility to support Joint Interagency Task Force South's mission, which includes counter illicit drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
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The U.S. Navy Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Sioux City (LCS 11) transits the Atlantic Ocean. (Picture source U.S. Navy)

Located at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South) conducts detection and monitoring (D&M) operations throughout their Joint Operating Area to facilitate the interdiction of illicit trafficking in support of national and partner nation security.

USS Sioux City (LCS-11) is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. The ceremonial “laying of the keel” was on 19 February 2014, at Marinette, Wisconsin. The ship was constructed by Fincantieri Marinette. She was delivered to the Navy by Lockheed Martin and the Marinette Marine shipyard on 22 August 2018 along with sister ship Wichita in a double delivery. The ship was commissioned at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on 17 November 2018, and then assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron Two. Sioux City will be assigned to the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.

The Freedom-class is one of the two variants of  Littoral Combat Ship Class - LCS in service with the U.S. Navy. The ship is a semi-planing steel monohull with an aluminum superstructure. It is 377 ft (115 m) in length, displaces 3,500 metric tons (3,400 long tons), and can achieve 47 kn (87 km/h; 54 mph). The design incorporates a large, reconfigurable sea frame to allow rapidly interchangeable mission modules, a flight deck with integrated helicopter launch, recovery and handling system, and the capability to launch and recover boats (manned and unmanned) from both the stern and side.

The flight deck is one and a half times larger than that of a standard surface ship and uses a Trigon traversing system to move helicopters in and out of the hangar. The ship has two ways to launch and recover various mission packages: a stern ramp and a starboard side door near the waterline. It can carry two Sikorsky MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters as well as one MQ-8 Fire Scout, an unmanned autonomous helicopter developed by Northrop Grumman for use by the United States Armed Forces.

The USS Sioux City is armed with one BAE Systems Mk 110 57 mm gun, RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles, Honeywell Mk 50 Torpedo, NETFIRES PAM missile in the ASuW module, and two .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns.