Any doubts about the usefulness of the US Coast Guard's (USCG's) Legend-class National Security Cutters (NSCs) in the controversial and contested waters of the Western Pacific were likely dispelled by USCGC Stratton (WMSL 752) in mid-2019. Stratton was about halfway through its Western Pacific deployment as the second USCG NSC to deploy to the region, where the ship was helping enforce United Nations Security Council sanctions to prevent certain shipments to North Korea in the Yellow Sea. "We had detected, with [an embarked ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle], an illegal ship-to-ship transfer that was occurring at night," Captain Bob Little, the NSCs commanding officer, told Jane's. "We were able to watch from a distance and collect imagery and document what was going on. At the point [where] we had obtained what we needed, as far as imagery [is concerned], we decided to disrupt the transfer." What transpired was a high-speed intercept disruption attempt with two Chinese coast guard vessels closely shadowing Stratton, as the sanction-breaking vessels made a "frantic breakaway and scramble" out of the area, according to Capt Little. "It was a pretty intense experience," he said, highlighting the importance of having a competent Mandarin Chinese interpreter on board "who was pretty assertive with the [Chinese] coast guard about what we were doing".
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