That was the plot for the Producers (a successful play that got made into a movie).

The only hitch, was they did such a terrible job people loved it.

If you really do this, Texas is NOT the place to commit such a criminal act. “California, is the place you ought to go!”

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 08:54 am: Edit

As a note, I think we just had another moment of Steve/Jessica/Jeff agreement (re: crypto). If I were prone to such things, I'd go buy a lottery ticket.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 09:16 am: Edit

We even got douglas Lampert to buy in.

I have no recollection of all four of us agreeing to on any subject, ever.

May be time to look for a really deep hole, well stocked with food, water, survival gear, weapons and sufficient ammunition supply…

Reinforced concrete is not required, but might be a really good idea…

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 10:53 am: Edit

Well, since a number of impossible things have been going on lately, maybe Hades IS freezing over!

I mean, Chuck Norris has died! Isn't that supposed to be PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE?!?

I'm on the verge of actually FINISHING writing a book! That, too, is a sign of the impending apocalypse!

Now, if we were to ever see an honest politician who started as a lawyer (President Carter started as an engineer), then I'd KNOW we were on the verge of The Rapture!

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 11:39 am: Edit

Already Been Done..

Abraham Lincoln.

They even made a movie.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 11:46 am: Edit

Jswile: there's a nice decommissioned Atlas E silo for sale outside Spokane, WA....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Information Warfare: Ukraine Copies Chinese Drone Design
March 24, 2026: Later this year Ukraine begins producing their own drones to replace the Chinese models or designs Ukraine has been using since 2014, when Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and portions of two provinces in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone designs are based on years of combat experience with drones and will include features that enable special hunter-killer units to use these drones to more frequently blind and kill Russian drone operators.
In 2023, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainians were building their own drones from foreign parts, often at home or scattered workshops. By late 2024, Ukrainians were producing over 150,000 drones a month. In 2025, Ukraine produced about four million drones.
Last year China stopped selling drones and drone components to Ukraine. Ukraine’s solution was to ramp up production by its domestic drone manufacturers and obtain more drones and parts from the United States and NATO countries. These drones aren’t as rugged as the Chinese Mavic 3 and 4 models, but they were meant to provide an adequate temporary solution. China banned the drones to help Russia, but the Russians are losing the war and probably won’t last beyond 2027.
One result of the Ukraine War was the emergence of inexpensive drones as a decisive weapon, as well as a reconnaissance and surveillance system. Drones have been around for decades, but they were complex, expensive, and difficult to operate. That changed in the 1990s when General Atomics introduced its one-ton Predator drone. These were widely used by American and allied forces, along with the larger 4.2-ton Reaper. The second stage of the revolution came in 2016 when the Chinese firm DJI introduced the Mavic quadcopter drone. These were cheap, costing from $300 to thousands of dollars, depending on accessories. By the 2020s, most quadcopter drones cost about $500. More importantly, suppliers provided drone components, so you could build, and often design, your own.
In 2023, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainians were building their own drones, often at home or in scattered workshops. By purchasing Chinese components in bulk, thousands of Ukrainian men and women were building these drones for the armed forces or for someone they knew in the military. Troops at the front also build and modify drones to fit their immediate situations. For the soldiers, designing better drones is often a matter of life or death.
The Ukrainians have stayed ahead of the Russians in drone technology and production. The Russian government discourages or even outlaws individuals building drones and instead centralizes drone production. This is the Russian way of war, which gives the Ukrainians an edge in drone quantity and quality. The Ukrainians are defending their homeland, while Russia is having an increasingly difficult time justifying continued fighting, with over 1.3 million Russians killed or disabled in Ukraine.


FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Jessica, I put a bid on the silo for the new ADB HQ. There could be a desk in the office for you.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 02:26 pm: Edit

Our new game will be (deleted), an alternate history where the (deleted) fight for (deleted).

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 02:47 pm: Edit

STEVE COLE!!!!

(Sounds of the Whanger being applied vigorously)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 03:12 pm: Edit

Okay, jokes over. I deleted that before anyone took it seriously or worse pretended to take it seriously.

Years ago, in the office, we were having a good times dinner with lots of Diet Mountain Dew and the "party game" was to think of the worst possible public relations disaster and then ask Jean how she would manage the crisis. That was one of the top entries for "worst possible public relations disaster" and you can guess why. It became something of a private joke inside the company, whenever something didn't go well, someone would say "well, at least Steve didn't announce (that game)." When you guys started talking about THE PRODUCERS and that stupid musical they produced the game just slipped out. Obviously a party game about "the worst thing" doesn't imply any of us would ever do such a thing.

Although you know who could have used the help. All those ... technicians ... who left the country might have stayed to produce .... that thing .... and only .... that guy ... would have had it. Plus getting the best natural born tank troops in the world on your side is never a bad thing.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 04:23 pm: Edit

Today, Russia made a daytime attack on Ukraine with 556 Shaheds.

Ukraine shot down 541 of them. That's 97%.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 04:40 pm: Edit

HeySteve!

About that other game project in the RPG area… does the cancellation apply to the Vampire historical RPG patterned on the life of Vlad, the impaler?

WHANG!

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 04:42 pm: Edit

That's still fifteen getting through.

How many civvies does that mean?

What would happen with a WMD warhead?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Fortunately, Ukraine is not winning in any obvious way, and unfortunately Putin seems to have learned the war winning strategy with the weakened Russia he has (there are a lot of non-Russian troops diving for Mother Russia). The reason this is fortunate? Putin will apparently not go Nuclear, but he may yet go Chemical.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Jeff, I don't think Putin would expend 556 nerve gas warheads to score 15 hits each of which might kill 10 people. With that kind of saturation attack, you use the cheapest warheads, high explosive. You would not mix 15 gas warheads into 556 drones because you wouldn't know which ones went through. Never mind the real possibility that one or two drones land in Poland every week and explosives are politically damaging enough. Drop a persistent nerve gas grenade on a Polish farm and you won't like what happens.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 11:40 pm: Edit

New game: VLAD, THE DRONE GNOME

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 05:42 am: Edit

That was probably a joke, but I seriously think there is an opportunity for whoever first comes out with a good game about drone warfare. The variety of new drones is tremendous, and their impact is enormous.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 06:29 am: Edit

The thing about drone warfare is it has a low price threshold to enter.

Commercial drones with video real time imaging, the ability to carry and deploy a grenade/improvised explosive are relatively inexpensive, readily available and reasonable range/flight time endurance.

Plus, users have the choice of a limited number of devices in a attack, or upgrade to swarm attacks that could overwhelm a targets defenses.

Anyone who wants to invent a game about drone warfare first has to decide on what scale to use..

Is it a tactical game, with a single soldier having to try to survive an ever increasing number and type of drones, or a squad soldiers, or do you offer the player A variety defense tasks? Like defending an airfield, or naval base, or a warship?

Different targets have different challenges.

Take for instance a recent AI video posted on YouTube.

The setting is very recent attack on an American aircraft carrier, defended by two destroyers, an AWACs and the carrier’s aircraft supplemented by the destroyer’s helicopters.

The attack force included four Iranian ballistic missiles, hundreds of drones, large number of fast attack boats and both fixedand mobile missile batteries deployed on Iranian positions on the northern side of the Persian Gulf.

Complicated.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 08:08 am: Edit

Pres. Trump has presented to Iran (via Pakistani mediaries) a 15-point plan to end the war. Details of the plan have not been made public, but Pakistani and Egyptian officials have said that it involves rollback of Iran's nuclear program, limits on Iranian missiles, etc.

The following is Iran's response, delivered by IRGC spokesman Zolfaghari (which pretty much confirms that the IRGC is in charge of Iran at this point): "Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever."

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 11:41 am: Edit

I keep telling you guys... "mission from God"

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 12:58 pm: Edit

but I seriously think there is an opportunity for whoever first comes out with a good game about drone warfare.

Probably updating weapons and aircraft into the "Wing of War" rules would be the easiest way to go...
Never saw it played, so don't know how well "Star Wars" worked in that system...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 03:23 pm: Edit

Not the topic for a drone game discussion, but most of the war is finding a target, and that is best simulated on a computer, not a paper map with counters.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Murphy's Law: Fast AI And Battlefield Disasters
March 25, 2026: AI/Artificial Intelligence targeting enables pilots and drone operators on the ground to quickly spot, identify and destroy a target. There are fears that users of these systems will make mistakes and hit the wrong targets and cause civilian casualties. This is not a new problem, but a very old one. With AI, legitimate targets are found and destroyed faster. In combat, troops, pilots and drone operators are facing enemies who want to kill them. AI enables the user to get in the first shot. Anything that disrupts that process degrades the ability of friendly forces to survive and win their battles. When you send soldiers and pilots off to war you cannot control their every action remotely. If you build in remote monitoring of AI enabled systems, the users will find ways to get around interference. Their lives are on the line while some bureaucratic entity in the rear areas defines winning as how many potentially erroneous AI supported attacks they can cancel. In situations like this, the people who are fighting to survive see rear area interference as another obstacle to be overcome to stay alive and get the job done.
Meanwhile, the American military is seeking to upgrade its Artificial AI capabilities to match the levels of China, Russia, and allies like Israel. The U.S. has been collaborating with the Israeli military, which has made substantial progress in adapting AI software to integrate with their combat control systems, utilizing new drone warfare weapons and techniques, and gathering intelligence on enemy identities, locations, and capabilities. Amid these advancements, the new system, called Refaim, can coordinate attacks on detected targets across army, air force, and naval units.
This has put pressure on the United States to develop AI technology its military can use for propaganda and influence operations against enemy troops and populations. Current AI technology enables mimicking the voices of enemy officers to send confusing radio messages to their subordinates. As a result, enemy forces may move in the wrong direction or fire artillery at incorrect targets, including their own troops.
AI can also assist commanders in making decisions more quickly. New technology does not gain widespread acceptance until it proves its usefulness and trustworthiness to users. This was true for the telegraph in the late 1800s, broadcast radio in the 1920s, and television three decades later. In fact, the development of more effective telegraph systems coincided with efforts to create commercial radio and television services. In the 1970s, personal computers/PCs were developed. The idea seemed absurd at first, but as tinkerers and hobbyist developers produced the first functional PCs, a new industry was born. By the late 1970s, Apple, Radio Shack, and other firms were selling PCs to an enthusiastic and sizable audience. Decades of American government and military work on the internet commercially available in 1995, making the maturing PC industry a must-have product.
In the 21st century, AI became a viable product, and as it reached more users, new and marketable applications emerged. Some uses were illegal, dividing the programmer and user community into good White Hat and bad Black Hat factions. Hacking soon became a military and intelligence asset. Many Black Hat programmers became national assets after being hired to protect American commercial and government networks from foreign Black Hats. Programmers who performed both Black and White Hat tasks were sometimes called Grey Hats. The spectrum of roles expanded as programmers developed new tools and applications, particularly with AI software produced by firms, individuals, or small groups who modified commercial AI software and offered it on the black market. These malicious offerings evolved into marketable products, quickly transitioning from the black market to legitimate, though sometimes restricted, markets due to their applications.
AI products like ChatGPT and related tools made it easy to create and modify malware, as malicious hacker software came to be known. ChatGPT also became a major source of antidotes for this malware. The fact that the lights are still on and bank accounts remain largely secure indicates that White Hats currently have the upper hand. However, some less visible damage goes unnoticed. Several hacks have stolen billions of dollars from banks or individual firms, often carried out by nations at odds with the United States, such as North Korea and Iran. These countries, facing increasingly crippling economic sanctions, rely on Black Hat hackers to fund their governments. Their Black Hat hackers are recognized as national assets and are well-compensated for their work. In North Korea, where few citizens can travel abroad, successful Black Hats live in relative luxury and can travel internationally whenever they wish.
Sometimes, North Korean Black Hats need to examine what Western hackers are doing. Software trade shows feature special sections for malware and its antidotes, though malware is traded covertly. No one can legally sell malware openly. Malware can be transported on thumb drives or smaller SIM chips used in cell phones, which are easily concealed and transferred to new owners. Payments can be quickly made to and from bank accounts using smartphone, tablet, or laptop apps. Trade shows are preferred venues for these transactions due to the variety of people and unexpected opportunities they offer.
New developments are often best discovered at trade shows. Hackers from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other nations have been using OpenAI systems. Microsoft and OpenAI believe these nations initially used AI for routine tasks, but this quickly escalated to cyberattacks. Some hackers with ties to foreign governments are using generative artificial intelligence in their attacks. Instead of creating exotic attacks, as some in the tech industry feared, hackers have used AI for mundane tasks like drafting emails, translating documents, and debugging code. These countries leverage AI to enhance productivity.
Microsoft, which committed nearly $23 billion to, and is a close partner with OpenAI, shares threat information to document how five hacking groups tied to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran used OpenAI’s technology. The companies did not specify which OpenAI technology was involved. OpenAI shut down these groups’ access after learning of the misuse.
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, concerns have persisted that hackers might weaponize these powerful tools to exploit vulnerabilities in new and creative ways. Like any technology, AI can be used for illegal and disruptive purposes.
OpenAI requires customers to sign up for accounts, but some users evade detection through techniques like masking their locations. This enables them to develop illegal or harmful AI applications. For example, a hacking group linked to the Iranian IRGC/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used AI to research ways to bypass antivirus scanners and generate phishing emails. One phishing email pretended to come from an international development agency, while another attempted to lure prominent feminists to an attacker-built website on feminism. In another case, a Russian-affiliated group used OpenAI’s systems to research satellite communication protocols and radar imaging technology to influence the war in Ukraine. Russia has long relied on a large propaganda organization to attack and weaken enemies, and AI is now another tool in their arsenal.
Microsoft tracks over 300 hacker organizations, including independent cybercriminals and AI operations conducted by various nations. OpenAI’s proprietary systems make it easier to track and disrupt their use, according to executives. They noted that while there are ways to identify hackers using open-source AI technology, the proliferation of open systems complicates the task.
When work is open-sourced, it becomes difficult to know who is using AI technology and whether they adhere to responsible use policies. Microsoft did not uncover any use of generative AI in a recent Russian hack of top Microsoft executives.
In combat situations, AI has been used increasingly over the past decade. As AI improves, it is employed more effectively and frequently in combat. For example, a Ukrainian firm developed an AI system that can accurately distinguish between Ukrainian and Russian soldiers in the distance, reducing instances of friendly fire. Friendly fire, when troops accidentally fire on their own, is an unfortunate and recurring aspect of modern warfare that no one likes to discuss. AI-assisted targeting reduces the likelihood of such incidents.

FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 - 03:28 pm: Edit

Submarines: Spain Defeats Drug Runner Submarines
March 25, 2026: Earlier this year the Spanish government dismantled the largest cocaine trafficking network operating in the Atlantic. This was a major loss for the seagoing smuggling operation that moved several tons of narcotics into Europe using high-speed boats capable of outrunning patrol vessels. After a year of investigations, Spain arrested over a hundred suspects and seized more than ten tons of cocaine along with electronics, boats and vehicles worth millions of dollars.
This smuggling operation used speed boats based in the Canary Islands that landed drugs in southern Spain. The speedboats also collected drugs from ships offshore. The smugglers used a sophisticated communications system that employed several different means of sending and receiving messages. Cooperation between American, Spanish, South American, Moroccan and the European Union authorities demolished a major drug smuggling operation.
This was but another in a series of anti-drug smuggling operations. Five years ago in southern Spain’s Malaga province just east of the Straits of Gibraltar, a police raid on a drug gang coastal warehouse found a ten-meter narco-sub drug smuggling submersible vessel under construction and nearly completed. The sub had a fiberglass and wood hull containing twin 200 HP engines. The sub could carry about two tons of drugs. This type of narco sub is used for offshore transfers of drugs from ocean-going fishing trawlers or cargo ships carrying cocaine from South America or hashish and heroin from Africa. Belgium and Spain are major centers of the European drug trade and together accounted for about ten percent of the drug seizures worldwide.
Building narco subs in Europe was suspected after the long-anticipated appearance of South American narco-subs in Europe finally happened in November 2019. This occurred off the Spanish coast when a trans-Atlantic narco-sub was having engine and ventilation problems made worse by rough seas. The three-man crew was discovered by police as they were abandoning the sinking narco-sub close to shore. Two of the crew, both from Ecuador, were arrested while the third man got away but was captured a few days later and found to be Spanish and the pilot of the sub. The sub was soon brought to the surface and taken to a port. The 21-meter submersible was carrying three tons of cocaine and had apparently made several voyages so far. This one had traveled farther than usual, to northwest Spain, near the border between Portugal and Galicia Spain, to avoid more intense offshore patrols off the southwest Spanish coast. The use of these submersibles off the Spanish coast had been rumored since 2016. It was also known that some only went as far as Cape Verde Islands, 570 kilometers off the northwest coast of Africa, the Canary Islands further north 100 kilometers off the Moroccan coast or much farther north to the Azores 1,500 kilometers west of Portugal. Once near these islands, the subs offload their cargo to fishing or speedboats, take on fuel and return to their South American base to pick up another load. As the use of submersibles and subs in South America became more common, it was suggested that these difficult to detect boats be used to move the cocaine to Spain.
Some submersibles had already been delivering cocaine to the west coast of Africa where smugglers moved it north and distributed some of it to African and North African gangs that serviced smaller Europe markets. Most of this trans-Atlantic cocaine ends up in Spain which is the source of most cocaine distributed throughout Europe. Spanish gangs dominate the importation and distribution of cocaine to other European markets. There are hundreds of police investigators in Spain and Europe who concentrate on the Spanish gangs that are at the center of the very profitable European cocaine trade. The Spanish gangs arrange for pick up and movement of cocaine from the Atlantic islands to Spain or other European countries.
What information the police have about the trans-Atlantic movement of cocaine comes from interrogations of arrested gang members and eavesdropping on their electronic communications. For a long time, cocaine was smuggled aboard cargo or passenger ships or commercial airline flights. These methods involved a lot of people getting caught and many shipments, some of them quite large, seized. Operating these small narco-subs on the high seas proved more difficult at first. After some trial and error, including many subs disappearing at sea, narco-sub design and crew qualifications reached the point where trans-Atlantic voyages were deemed practical for regular use. Eventually, the majority of cocaine used in Europe was arriving via these small narco-subs.
The European police cooperated with their American and South American counterparts to get an idea of how extensive the use of these submersibles was in moving cocaine from the source Ecuador and Colombia to world markets. The submersibles had already become the major transportation method to North America, Africa and Europe because they were the most difficult to detect. Since the 1990s it is believed that nearly a thousand submersibles have been built and about two hundred are currently in use. That’s about a billion dollars spent on narco-sub construction.
The United States has been dealing with these submersibles since 2000 because most of them appeared to be used to move cocaine to the United States. About 80 percent of the submersible traffic was in the Pacific, from South America to Mexico and, less often, to Central America. Another 15 percent operated in the Caribbean and a growing percentage of the boats were moving cocaine to Africa and Spain.
Most of these narco-subs are still semi-submersible type vessels. These are 10-20-meter fiberglass and wood boats, powered by one or two diesel engines, with a very low freeboard and a small conning tower, providing the crew of 3-5, and engine, with fresh air and the ability to safely navigate. A boat of this type was, since they first appeared in the early 1990s, thought to be the only practical kind of submarine for drug smuggling. After 2000 some drug gangs developed real submarines, capable of carrying 5-10 tons of cocaine. These boats were not true submarines because they did not have batteries so they could operate submerged with the diesel engine turned off. Instead, these subs used a World War II innovation, the snorkel. This looked something like a periscope, but thicker in diameter. For narco-subs, the snorkel mast was not retractable, as it is on military subs, but operated on the same principle.
In the smaller narco-subs, the snorkel proved to be more trouble than it was worth. In bad weather, waves constantly washed over the snorkel and forced its water valve to close, so water did not get into the sub. This often caused the diesel to shut down because of insufficient fresh air and too much exhaust unable to vent. The crew had a separate air supply but that supply was not sufficient to keep the diesel going, even for short periods. The snorkel was largely gone by the late 1990s. Instead, the designs of the semi-submersibles were improved by using better methods to cool the exhaust via more pipes outside the sub hull where the colder water absorbed heat before venting into the air via a curved pipe that sent the exhaust down towards the water rather than straight up. By reducing its heat signature this way, the sub reduced its vulnerability to the heat sensors search aircraft used. At that point the semi-submersible subs were very difficult to spot using radar, heat sensors, or even visually, from the air or a surface ship. With these reduced heat emissions, the snorkel was no longer an attractive alternative. The police and military have since obtained better sensors for detecting these narco-subs. The American military is a leader in this field and that is why the one percent detection rate increased to about ten percent of all narco-subs being detected and caught.
The snorkel subs also cost more than semi-submersibles and required a more highly trained crew. For a long time, there were efforts to borrow a lot of technology and ideas from the growing number of recreational submarines being built. That led to the construction of a few true subs, based on recreational subs. These proved to be more expensive to build and operate and some were still detected at sea or during construction. That meant the true subs were not sufficiently more effective to justify their higher cost. Semi-submersibles cost about $2 million to build, which takes about a year. The true submarines take several years to build and cost over $5 million.
That has led to drug gangs changing their tactics and building smaller narco-subs that carry one or two tons of cocaine at $24 million a ton so that, if one of these subs is caught, its loss is just considered a cost of doing business and not a significant financial loss.
Despite losing over a hundred semi-submersibles to the U.S. and South American naval forces, plus hundreds more to accidents and bad weather plus hundreds more to heavy use, the drug gangs have apparently concluded that the subs are the cheapest and most reliable way to ship the drugs. Early on, several hundred of these narco-subs were built and used on one-way trips to Mexico or the United States. Most of them got through. As new ones were built, their designs and durability improved to the point where the semi-submersibles were capable of multiple round-trips. Some have apparently been refurbished or rebuilt so they can undertake even more voyages.
It was these sturdier and more reliable vessels that made the trans-Atlantic routes possible. The more reliable boats also made it possible to obtain more experienced, and effective, crews. The early designs were dangerous and although high fees were paid to crew, usually operators of offshore fishing boats, it was very dangerous. Some of the early crews were recruited by threats against their families or even by kidnapping of family members. With the reusable boats more crews were making a career out of this well-paying job. Moreover, the trans-Atlantic voyages meant covering about 8,000 kilometers, which could take 15-20 days. The trips to Mexico were less than half that and the ones to Central American or via the Caribbean even shorter. The early trans-Atlantic voyages went only as far as some islands close to Europe and Africa but these were still about 75 percent as long as going all the way to Spain.
A detection network, run mainly by the United States, located a lot more of these cocaine subs than there were police or coast guard or navy ships available to run them all down. This was a problem that has yet to be solved. It is complicated by the fact that these aerial contacts can be lost even if you keep the search aircraft in the area for a long time so a surface ship can arrive. One possible solution to this was more international cooperation. Since the early 1990s the United States has used a special interagency group of the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Defense, plus international ones in which over a dozen nations participate in intelligence sharing/analysis operation, called the Joint Interagency Task Force-South, to track drug smuggling from South America. After 2001 the task force became quite expert at tracking the submarines and submersibles built in South America for smuggling cocaine to North America and, in a few cases, all the way to Europe. Some of these long-range subs are apparently going all the way from Ecuador to the United States, bypassing the Mexican cartels, who have been fighting each other in a big way since 2008. Trips directly to the United States proved too dangerous and most of the narco-subs now go to Mexico or Central America.
There was always a concern that larger boats would eventually head for Europe. For years little was known about this effort, except that it existed. Then verifiable reports, from informants, electronic eavesdropping and interrogations confirmed that cocaine was coming in via semi-submersibles. It was believed that these subs would be more at risk of being lost because of an accident or bad weather than being spotted. It turned out that the new designs were even capable of making the trip and usually returning under their own power. European navies, especially Portugal and Spain's, and coast guards were alerted and began searching regularly but until 2019 had never actually caught one of these semi-submersibles. At first, it was thought that the risk of failure was so high for these trans-Atlantic narco-subs that few were built and not on a regular basis. That was not the case and the captured gangsters and overheard electronic communications indicated that the subs had become a regular method for moving the cocaine.
So far, the Colombian security forces and other Latin American navies have been responsible for most of these vessel captures. The number being captured has been going up in the last few years and 2019 was a record year with 36 boats detected and seized. Usually these boats are sunk by their crews when spotted, but the few that were captured intact revealed features like an extensive collection of communications equipment, indicating an effort to avoid capture by monitoring many police and military frequencies. The Colombians captured several of these vessels before they could be launched. Since 2010 the Colombians have been collecting a lot of information on those who actually build these subs for the drug gangs and FARC leftist rebels that provide security and often transportation for moving cocaine. FARC made peace with the government several years ago but some factions refused to surrender and continued to produce cocaine and build semi-submersibles. Security forces in Colombia and Ecuador continue to search for the jungle riverbanks where the construction takes place. These construction sites are constantly being moved because they are hard to keep hidden for a long time.
Colombian police have arrested dozens of members of gangs that specialized in building submarines and semi-submersible boats. As police suspected, some of those arrested were retired or on active duty with the Colombian Navy, which operates two 1970s era German built Type 209 submarines. These arrests were part of an intense effort to find the people responsible for building subs for cocaine gangs. Find the builders and you stop the building efforts. In this case, it has only delayed some construction and made it more expensive to build these boats.
European police have detected signs that Spanish drug gangs are not only building their own narco-subs for making the final run of from up to a hundred kilometers offshore, with cocaine transferred from a larger surface ship, but also planning to make fully submersible subs powered by electric engines for this final run to the Spanish coast. These would be larger than the usual narco-subs because of the need to carry over ten tons of batteries to propel the sub under water at about 60 kilometers at five kilometers an hour, just beneath the surface. These subs would be virtually undetectable compared to the current diesel-powered semi-submersibles, but would have to meet the ship carrying the drugs closer under 30 kilometers to the shore. These submersible subs would be far more expensive, at over $10 million each to build and require better trained and more experienced crew to operate it. For that reason it is believed the drug gangs will not take the risk of building and operating these more expensive and complex submersibles unless losses among the semi-submersibles off the coast get too high.
The U.S. shared with Israel what it knew about finding these vessels because Israel felt threatened by them for different reasons. In 2016 Israel began deploying new sensors and techniques to find these small, easily built vessels that they feared would be used to attack Israel’s new offshore natural gas fields. The Israelis have an advantage in that they have a less restrictive ROE\Rules of Engagement and, while the United States never has enough surface ships or long-range helicopters to make sure that long-range sensor contacts are actually narco-subs and not some legal vessel, the Israelis can warn all maritime traffic in their coastal waters to identify themselves or risk being fired on from the air or from surface craft. A number of the latter are unmanned, like the new Seagull unmanned surface drone that can fire wire-guided torpedoes.

FYEO