Protecting waterways: Coast Guard drops in on lawbreakers.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs - Brief Article

The U.S. Coast Guard calls them "vertical insertion teams," but they're informally known as "fast-ropers." The service recently added the ability to speed members of their enhanced maritime safety and security teams onto unwelcoming ships. Eight personnel can board a boat in less than 30 seconds.

First, a helicopter will swoop in low. Then, the team members will be "50 feet in the air, and they'll walk into space holding nothing but a rope and slide down," said Cmdr. Steve Torpey at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference. The tactic will be employed against "noncompliant" boats, he added. But once they're on the boat, there's no way for the helicopter to lift them off.

"These guys know going down that there's only one way off," Torpey said. Team members will have to wait for a support vessel. Fast-roping differs from a vertical deployment, which uses a hoist and harness and takes three...