A joint US Navy and Coast Guard team seized thousands of illicit weapons last week after stopping a small ship in the North Arabian Sea, the Navy said in a statement.
The cruiser USS Monterey stopped the stateless dhow on May 6 during a routine operation to verify its registry, the Navy said.A US Coast Guard Advanced Interdiction Team deployed on the Navy ship then boarded the dhow and found the weapons stash.An SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey flies above a stateless dhow interdicted with a shipment of illicit weapons in international waters of the North Arabian Sea on May 6, 2021.
The massive arms haul covered much of the rear flight deck of the 567-foot US warship after it was transferred over in what the Navy said was a two-day operation."The cache of weapons included dozens of advanced Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles, thousands of Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, and hundreds of PKM machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Other weapon components included advanced optical sights," the Navy statement said.