Combined Maritime Forces: U.S.'s Global
Naval Force in the Arabian Sea
22 June 2012
By Rick Rozoff
The U.S. Navy blog site ran a feature on the
U.S.-created and -led multinational Combined Maritime
Forces operation throughout the Arabian Sea on June
28.
Established in February 2002 toward the beginning of
the so-called global war on terror, it has in the
interim expanded to include 35-40 ships engaged in
what are identified as anti-piracy operations and the
"promotion of security, stability and prosperity" in
2.5 million square miles of international waters from
the Horn of Africa to the western coast of Pakistan
and from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden
separating Somalia from Yemen: A zone taking in recent
and current American and North Atlantic Treaty
Organization theaters of war in Iraq,
Afghanistan-Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen; indeed the
central focus of Western military operations and
geopolitical strategy over the past decade.
Two and a half years ago Washington claimed that its
campaign and that of its NATO allies in Afghanistan
had proven so successful that it had driven al-Qaeda
elements out of South Asia, forcing them to – somehow,
it was never explained how – flee across the entire
width of the Arabian Sea to Somalia and Yemen,
although overall developments related to the
intractable, and unwinnable, war in Afghanistan in the
interim hardly bear out the first half of that
self-deluding assessment.
The over decade-long Combined Maritime Forces
initiative is commanded by American Vice Admiral John
Miller, who is simultaneously commander of U.S Naval
Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet, all
three based in Bahrain. Its deputy commander is
Commodore Simon Ancona of the Royal Navy, who also
serves as the United Kingdom Maritime Component
commander in charge of Royal Navy and Royal Fleet
Auxiliary ships in the Middle East. The U.S. Fifth
Fleet has a Carrier Strike Group, Expeditionary Strike
Group, at most times two nuclear-powered supercarriers
and other ships and aircraft with 15,000 service
members assigned to them.
Combined Maritime Forces consists of three combined
task forces (CFTs) — CTF 150, CTF 151 and CTF 152 –
which are identified as conducting maritime security,
counter-piracy and Persian Gulf maritime security
operations, respectively.
The Combined Maritime Forces website describes the
geostrategic importance of its area of operation as
encompassing "some of the world's most important
shipping lanes," from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman
and the Laccadive Sea; where the Mediterranean Sea
meets the Arabian Sea and where the latter connects
with the Persian Gulf and where it flows into the Bay
of Bengal.
Combined Maritime Forces now includes naval forces
from 26 nations, all but one, Thailand, NATO members
states, partners and Troop Contributing Nations for
the International Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan.
Member states: The U.S., Belgium, Britain, Canada,
Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.
Partners: Australia, Bahrain, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait,
New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and
the United Arab Emirates.
Troop Contributing Nations not yet in the second
category: Malaysia and Singapore.
Combined Task Force 150 operates in the Gulf of Aden,
Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Indian Ocean
and has been commanded at various times by the U.S.,
Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia
and Pakistan.
The strategic significance of CTF 150's geographical
scope is described by Combined Maritime Forces as
follows:
"This area is a vital artery of world trade that
includes the main shipping routes from the Far East to
Europe and the US with over 23,000 shipping movements
per year. Over one third of the world's oil passes
through the Area of Operation (AOR) each year. In
addition the AOR contains three narrow waterways, know
as ‘choke points', where vessels are required to pass
closely between two shorelines…"
Combined Task Force 151 is deployed to the Gulf of
Aden and off the coast of Somalia, covering 1.1
million square miles. It has been commanded by the
U.S., Denmark, Turkey, Pakistan and South Korea. CTF
151 coordinates all its activities with NATO and the
European Union Naval Force Somalia, which are
conducting Operation Ocean Shield and Operation
Atalanta, respectively.
Combined Task Force 152 operates in what Combined
Maritime Forces refers to as the Arabian Gulf; that
is, what most of the world knows as the Persian Gulf.
The use of the first description is a naked affront to
Iran and is meant to be just that. CTF 152 operates in
conjunction with the navies of the six Gulf
Cooperation Council member states: Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates. It has been commanded by the U.S., Britain,
Italy, Australia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab
Emirates.
The Combined Maritime Forces website offers this
concise background information (and at least
implicitly reveals why the CTF 152 is present where it
is):
"Today the Gulf is one of the most strategic waterways
in the world due to its importance in world oil
transportation. It contains in the region of 700
billion barrels of proven oil reserves, representing
over half of the world's oil reserves, and over 2,000
trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves (45% of
the world total). Arabian Gulf countries maintain
about one-third of the world's productive oil
capacity. The majority of the oil exported from the
Arabian Gulf is transported by sea."
The U.S. and its military allies in Canada, Europe,
the Asia-Pacific region and the Persian Gulf have
their warships and shipborne aircraft positioned in
the most economically and geostrategically vital
stretch of water in the world. To protect their own
interests in the manner the world's sole military
superpower employs throughout most of the planet –
maintaining the presence of overwhelming firepower –
and whenever it suits them to threaten the fundamental
interests of others.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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