Teasing by the Bear?

US Disputes Russia's Claim of Intercepted Military Flights:

The U.S. military is disputing a Russian general's claim that American fighter planes intercepted Russian aircraft over the Pacific, near a U.S. military base.

A military spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii says Thursday U.S. forces were prepared to intercept two Russian TU-95 bombers flying toward the island of Guam this week, but that no such action took place.

The American spokesman says Russian aircraft never came close enough to a U.S. Navy ship or to Guam to warrant an interception. U.S. radar monitored the Russian bombers, but the spokesman says the American and Russian aircraft were not close enough to see each other.

Oh, those funny Bears!

Inshore Boats Units cover Maritime Security Operations boarding teams

Reported here:

Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron (NCWRON) 5 Oil Platform (OPLAT) Detachment provided security for USS Chinook (PC 9) and USCGC Wrangell (WPB 1332) visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) teams while conducting Interaction Patrols (IPATS) Aug. 5 in the north Persian Gulf.

NCWRON 5 OPLAT Det.’s mission is to protect VBSS teams while they are maintaining security in the region’s shallow waters.

“We assist in Maritime Security Operations (MSO), in particular, in the shallow water region of the area,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Merrill, Inshore Boat Unit (IBU) 51 officer in charge. “Using our patrol craft, we provide a 360-degree ring of security around boarding teams as they board commercial vessels.”

VBSS and IPATS are elements of MSO that help generate support and awareness amongst commercial vessels sailing in the region of the coalition's efforts to ensure a safe and secure maritime environment. Coalition forces also conduct MSO under international maritime conventions to ensure security and safety in international waters so that commercial shipping and fishing can occur safely in the region.

In addition, the sailors are training Iraqi Marines to take over the job-
Photo caption:

Photo - Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Nickel Samuel assigned to Mobile Security Detachment (MSD) 24 observes Iraqi marines participating in a live-fire exercise. MSD-24 is training Iraqi marines to maintain security in and around the Al Basrah and Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminals, which provides the Iraqi people the opportunity for self-determination. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Christopher T. Smith.

Scuba Vandals of Saudi Arabia!

Reported as Scuba Vandals Wreck Jeddah Dive Platforms:

Two submersed diver-training platforms at a popular beach north of Jeddah have been destroyed in an apparent act of vandalism that is believed to have been committed by a team of divers.
***
The dive platforms themselves, which were constructed in 1997, became mini manmade reefs with a whole community of fish — some of them rare and unusual species — and other reef-crawlers taking up residence underneath them. Lessons taking place on the platforms have been temporarily suspended as divers stopped to marvel at the occasional passing whale shark, manta ray, or sea turtle.

“Whoever did this for whatever purpose has damaged much more than just a bundle of pipe-work,” said Saga. “They have damaged a developing specialist tourist industry and sent out a message that they care nothing for the environment or safety of divers. It is incredible that the wreckers must have been divers; one has to question their sanity. Why on earth would they want to destroy something as valuable to the community as this?”

The usual reason is "because it was there..."

New Coast Guard Group for Emergenices - of all stripes

Reported here, the rise of the "DOG":

Aiming to become the nation’s lead maritime tactical response force, these Coast Guardsmen — members of the service’s new Deployable Operations Group (DOG) — are about as close to special operations-capable as the Coast Guard gets.
The DOG formally became a Coast Guard unit July 20 in a sunset ceremony in Washington.
“We have specialized forces that conduct the high-end portions of our missions,” said Rear Adm. Tom Atkin, the DOG’s fist commander. “Could we say some of these capabilities are similar skill sets as special forces in [the Defense Department]? Definitely.”
Like the Defense Department armed services’ special operations commands, the DOG draws together the Coast Guard’s elite teams — those that handle anti-terrorism response, environmental disasters, port security and combat operations in the maritime milieu, according to service officials.
Its command cadre will oversee the Coast Guard’s response to operational contingencies both at home and overseas. Past events that have relied on DOG legacy units include the space shuttle Columbia disaster, port security of Umm Quasr, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the response to the Palermo Senator, a vessel that carried radioactive cargo — later found to be harmless roofing tiles — into the port of Newark, N.J.
The new command is necessary, officials say, to streamline the Coast Guard’s — and the nation’s — response to disasters, whether they be natural or man-made.
“During Hurricane Katrina, we performed admirably,” Atkin said. “But response was a little more ad hoc than it needed to be. We weren’t always 100 percent sure of each other’s [tactics, techniques and procedures]. If we’d had the doctrine and the force package in place, we would have been even more effective.”
***
Units now under DOG command, including the Coast Guard’s 13 maritime safety and security teams, National Strike Force environmental hazards unit, a Chesapeake, Va.-based maritime security response team, Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron Coast Guard members and the service’s tactical law enforcement teams, will remain at their current locations.

Savannah LNG expansion plans approved, usual suspects whine

Reported here, an authorized expansion of a Georgia Liquid Natural Gas facility near Savannah:

Plans to more than double the storage capacity for liquid natural gas at Savannah's Elba Island terminal have moved closer to reality as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has concluded the project is not likely to cause significant environmental harm.

Of course, fear-mongers walk among us:

Elba is one of only four import terminals for liquid natural gas in the continental United States. Plans to build dozens more have met with community opposition from Maine to California, particularly in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But Elba's proposed expansion has met with little debate.

"Community after community, we've asked less questions than anybody else," Jennings said. "It's like the heat has fried our brains."

***


The Sierra Club and the Savannah Riverkeeper commented on the draft environmental impact statement, as did dozens of concerned landowners along the pipeline route.

LNG is methane that has been cooled to ultra-low temperatures to condense it for transport and storage. Critics worry that incoming tankers or the import facility itself could be the target of a terrorist attack.

Experts suggest a catastrophic attack on a tanker at the terminal or on the tanks could produce a fire so large and hot that a two-mile buffer would be needed to avoid burns to exposed skin.

Accidents are also a worry. In March 2006, the 940-foot-long tanker Golar Freeze pulled away from its moorings on Elba after a passing ship created a surge.

The fact that no spill occurred does not comfort Jennings.

I doubt much would.

More info on the LNG facility from its owner, El Paso Corporation (from which, I should note, I will someday receive a pension) here.

Clicking on an image may make it bigger.

Okay, I'm back

Vacation over.

Had fun.

Relaxed.

Enjoyed the mountains.

And the fishing...(that's a White-bellied Sea Eagle!)

The "artist" as idiot

A self-portrait of an idiot revealed when an "artist" attempted to penetrate the security zone around the Queen Mary 2 in New York in a submarine like device, as set out here with several photos.

In my view, the cops should have blown him out of the water.

Moron.

UPDATE: Clueless? Asked here:

My only question is, why are the police suddenly concerned, when judging by the gunk on the side of the little sub, this isn’t the first time its been out? I will give them that it does look like it could be a large buoyant bomb, but why on earth would someone target a cruise ship?

Just for proof, you might recall the AQ rep arrested in Turkey as he was plotting to attack Israeli cruise ships (see here) and other threats.

And things the "artist" should have known:

Since September 11th, much stricter security measures have been in place to protect ships and their passengers.

Every U.S. port now maintains and enforces a minimum 300-foot "no float zone," a security perimeter that prohibits private craft from coming near cruise ships. In addition, cruise ships are getting an armed U.S. Coast Guard escort in and out of port.

There is also stricter access control to ports and terminals: Passengers are now required to show their tickets to enter both the port area and the terminal.

Going fishing...

Blogging may be intermittent for the next few days as I wander off the beaten path.

Unlike Salamander who is undoubtedly doing something important, I do expect to blog a little over the next few days

However, don't be surprised if a day or two goes by without a new post. It probably means the trout are biting...

China looks to the sea

Stratfor analysis of a Chinese "dilemma":

...Since the economic opening and reform of the late 1970s, China has increased its need for oil and other energy imports, as well as for raw materials. At the same time, it has become more dependent on foreign export markets for its economic well-being. The days of remaining content with defending its land borders against invaders via strategic buffers and coastline patrols no longer suffice as China's strategic interests reach through Southeast Asia into the Indian Ocean basin and as far as West Africa and Latin America.
***
China, then, has three options: It can accept U.S. control of the seas and leave its growing economic interests at the mercy of U.S. good will; it can reduce its overall overseas vulnerabilities; or it can begin to prepare its own counterstrategy to defend its overseas interests. The latter will draw the most attention from its neighbors and the United States.

All about those Sea lanes:

Of particular interest in recent days are the sea lanes China is working to find ways to protect. As you can see from the following (which just reference crude oil shipments) these lanes are heavily traveled. In the... chart, I have marked U.S. allies in blue (yes, Singapore is over-sized) and areas that China is making claims or working to establish relations as red bursts. Note that the red bursts sit athwart the sea lanes.

China is also assisting in building a large naval base in western Pakistan, "China's pearl in Pakistan's waters" as so aptly named in the linked article from the Asia Times:

For China, Gwadar's strategic value stems from its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz. About 60% of China's energy supplies come from the Middle East, and China has been anxious that the US, which has a very high presence in the region, could choke off these supplies to China. "Having no blue-water navy to speak of, China feels defenseless in the Persian Gulf against any hostile action to choke off its energy supplies," points out Tarique Niazi, a specialist in resource-based conflict, in the Jamestown Foundation's China Brief.

A presence in Gwadar provides China with a "listening post" where it can "monitor US naval activity in the Persian Gulf, Indian activity in the Arabian Sea and future US-Indian maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean", writes Haider. A recent report titled "Energy Futures in Asia" produced by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for the Pentagon notes that China has already set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar, which are monitoring maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea.

Drawing attention to China's "string of pearls" strategy, the report points out that "China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives". The port and naval base in Gwadar is part of the "string of pearls".

The other "pearls" in the string include facilities in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and the South China Sea that Beijing has acquired access to by assiduously building ties with governments in these countries.

See also here for "China builds up strategic sea lanes."

See also "String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power Across the Asian Littoral" by LTC Christopher Pehrson (Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, 2006) (downloadable pdf):

China’s rising maritime power is encountering American maritime power along the sea lines of communication (SLOCs) that connect China to vital energy resources in the Middle East and Africa. The “String of Pearls” describes the manifestation of China’s rising geopolitical influence through efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, develop special diplomatic relationships, and modernize military forces that extend from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the Arabian Gulf. A question posed by the “String of Pearls” is the uncertainty of whether China’s growing influence is in accordance with Beijing’s stated policy of “peaceful development,” or if China one day will make a bid for regional primacy. This is a complex strategic situation that could determine the future direction of China’s relationship with the United States, as well as China’s relationship with neighbors throughout the region.

And this thesis, "“The Malacca Dilemma” — Countering China's “Sring of Pearls” with Land-Based Air Power" by (not surprisingly) USAF Major Lawrence Spinetta:

China is strengthening diplomatic ties and building naval bases along the sea lanes from the Middle East. This “String of Pearls” strategy is designed to protect its energy security, negate US influence in the region, and project power overseas. China is rapidly building a blue-water navy, developing advanced missile technology, and stockpiling undersea mines to counter US Navy capabilities, especially in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. To counter China’s growing naval power, the United States can exploit a critical vulnerability—China’s dependence on sea lines of communication. Eighty percent of China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Malacca; the Chinese leadership calls this strategic weakness the “Malacca Dilemma.” In conjunction with naval forces, land-based airpower offers a promising way to control key maritime chokepoints and trade routes.

Glad to see people thinking and talking about the "dilemma."


Sea lane map: Chokepoints: Maritime Economic Concerns in Southeast Asia, Institute for National Strategic Studies, Washington,D.C. (National Defense University, 1996)(color and bursts added)

UPDATE: Galrahn at Information Dissemination also is thinking China with the post A Dragon Emerges: Has China Arrived? with some more links.

Pakistan takes command of CTF 150 in Bahrain - Military News, Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times

Pakistan takes a turn as set out in Pakistan takes command of CTF 150 in Bahrain:

The Pakistani navy took over command of Combined Task Force 150 in Middle Eastern waters Wednesday at a ceremony at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

CTF 150 is tasked with patrolling the waters of the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean. The multinational partnership includes ships from France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the U.S

Pakistani Commodore Khan Hasham Bin Saddique relieved French Rear Adm. Alain Hinden, who commanded the task force for 120 days.
***
“Coalition forces are at the forefront of maritime security operations daily,” Cosgriff {NB E1: VADM Cosgrove- commander, Naval Forces Central Command, 5th Fleet, and head of Combined Maritime Forces} said in the statement. “We are protecting essential maritime infrastructure while we continuously expand and strengthen our coalition individual and collective capabilities.”

I wonder how many Democrats calling for an invasion of Pakistan it will take to screw this positive relationship up?

High tech sea pirates

Somali pirates are not low tech bozos, as noted in The Space Review: Spacepower for warlords:

In the northwest section of the Indian Ocean, Somali pirates, equipped with satellite phones and GPS, have been increasingly active. According to an AP report published last month (which may or may not be reliable), “They target passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot, and use the money to buy weapons.” Other reports indicate that these pirates are operating further and further away from their bases, which shows just how much they depend on space technology for their operational effectiveness. The next step, perhaps, may be to use commercial remote sensing images to help locate vulnerable ships.

This kind of activity contributes to major humanitarian crises: the ongoing situation in Somalia continues due to warlords and their clans. They not only prevent or delay food aid from reaching those who need it, but they also keep things stirred up so that few crops get planted and it becomes almost impossible to maintain the herds of cattle that were once that unhappy nation’s principal resource.

A couple of questions....why the disclaimer over the accuracy of the AP report? I should think that the concepts expressed are pretty evident... and why is anyone surprised by this? That warlords might skip a generation or two of technology to get better information to ply their trade shouldn't be stunning...

Previous post on "high tech" Somali pirates here.

Piracy in Somalia: UN Food Aid impacted

Who will bell the cat?

UN report on the impact of Somali pirates on food distribution programs in Tackling Piracy in Somali Waters:

Frequent pirate attacks in Somalia have been threatening commercial shipping and fishing and impeding the delivery of humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of Somalis. The World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) jointly issued an appeal in July 2007 for action to halt piracy off the coast of the country. Both UN agencies have been pushing the UN Security Council to ask the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to help tackle the problem.

Delivery of supplies by sea has been a logistical and security challenge since the collapse of the last national government in 1991 due to the rise in the frequency of pirate attacks. This has resulted in higher shipping costs and a significant reduction in the number of cargo vessels in the water. WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran stated that close to 80 per cent of its assistance to Somalia is shipped by sea, "but because of piracy we have seen the availability of ships willing to carry food to the country cut by half". There were 15 attacks on ships in or near Somali waters from January to July 2007-two of these on WFP-contracted vessels, wherein a security guard was killed-compared to 10 such attacks in 2006. WFP hoped to deliver food assistance for 1 million people in Somalia, as already high levels of malnutrition had worsened with predicted crop failures. Ms. Sheeran also stated: "Pirates may have a romantic image on the silver screen these days, but the picture might not be quite so pretty from the point of view of someone stuck in a camp for internally displaced people in Somalia, dependent on food assistance for survival."

Map from the linked site of the WFP locales in Somalia and Kenya.


Previous post along these lines here (Who will bell the cat?), here (Death by Piracy).

Japan aid to the Philippines

Japan to help the Philippines out, as reported here:

apan announced on Tuesday more than 11 million dollars in financial assistance to the Philippines to implement disaster prevention and maritime security projects.
***
The first grant, worth 779 million yen (6.53 million dollars), would be used to fund a project improving flood forecasting and warnings system in the northern Philippine province of Pampanga.

The project, to be implemented by the Philippines' weather bureau, will provide technical support for improving the system operation for flood forecasting and disaster prevention.

The second project, to be funded by a 609-million-yen grant, would improve and enhance the capability of the Philippine coast guard for search and rescue as well as counter-terrorism.

'The project will establish satellite communications systems in 11 stations nationwide,' the embassy statement said. 'Twenty-four stations ... will also be equipped with VHF/HF radio system.'

Communicaions is always good.

UPDATE: U.S. offers to help fight terrorism, too, and Australia is in the mix, as set out here:

The United States military is willing, if requested by the government, to help the Philippine Armed Forces fight the communist New People's Army in addition to its current assistance to defeat the Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Mindanao.
***
Keating said the US military is focusing efforts on the defeat of the Abu Sayyaf. A number of US forces are in Mindanao to provide technical assistance in identifying whereabouts of terrorist leaders in the region.

On the possible violation of Philippine sovereignty if they help fight the communists, Keating said: “We’re very careful about sovereignty issue and it is only in response to the Philippine government request that we respond."

The RP-US Mutual Defense Board and Security Exchange Board re-affirmed its commitment under the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty to “defend one another against common threats and we will continue to cooperate in responding to various security concerns in the region."
***
At the same time, Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military establishment is looking forward to trilateral exercises between Filipino, United States and Australian forces in the near future.

“We expect that there will be an expansion from bilateral activities to multilateral where it is legally permissible," said Esperon in a joint press conference with Admiral Keating.

Filipino and US forces have been jointly training for the past decades, with focus redirected recently on the fight against terrorist organizations, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Jemaah Islamiyah.

President Arroyo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard signed a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement last month that will govern the conduct of joint military training for the two countries’ military forces. The agreement awaits ratification by the Senate.

“We will do it (trilateral exercises) as addressing security threats cannot be limited to bilateral arrangements. On matters of terrorism for example, that could be global, multilateral. There are benefits in working together because that saves us time and resources," Esperon said.

He said neighbors in the region have been engaging in multilateral exercises with other countries and he sees nothing wrong with the Philippines adopting the same strategy. “In the region, we see a lot of multilateral activities, trainings, exchange of information and we (military establishment) don’t see any reason why we could not go to that direction," he said.

Licenses for small boat owners

Reported by the Christian Science Monitor Got a boat? You may need a license.:

With some 17 million boats on the water, as many as 70 million boaters, and 95,000-plus miles of shoreline, America has a coastal vulnerability that extends beyond the few miles of range around major ports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has secured so far.

While the federal government will spend $178 million next year to attain a goal of placing radiation monitors at 98 percent of US ports, many experts say a jihadist cell would be less likely to ship a nuclear device in a container and more likely to deliver it in person in a recreational-style boat.

The attack on the USS Cole, for one, showed that small boats such as bowriders and cuddy cabins can be used to ram large ships and to launch mortar attacks, terrorism experts say.

A part of a proposed solution is to license boaters, just as we license automobile drivers.

Some people seem - uh- a little defensive in arguments countering licensing:

"What concerns us is that [DHS] is trying to basically use boating safety as a fig leaf to cover their real intention, which is to identify recreational boaters and get them licensed," says Mike Sciulla, spokesman for the Boat Owners Association of the United States in Alexandria, Va. "For the government to suggest that boaters should be required to take classes for national security reasons is ... unwarranted."

Identify boaters? Get them some minimal training? The horror...

Waiting on the UN to do something about the Somali pirates

The UN once again springs into "dynamic inaction"* in dealing with the Somali pirates, and interested parties are getting restless, as set out here:

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) wants the UN Security Council to undertake urgent measures to restore sanity to Somali waters, where piracy and armed attacks against ships have become the order of the day.

Following the appeal by IMO secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council is expected to pressure the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to either crack down on the menace itself or seek international assistance.
***
UN action would include consenting to naval ships operating in the Indian Ocean, entering the country’s territorial waters when engaging in operations against pirates or suspected pirates and armed robbers endangering the safety of life at sea, in particular the safety of crews on board ships carrying World Food Programme humanitarian aid to Somalia or leaving Somali ports after having discharged their cargo.

The Council authorised the secretary general to take action in accordance with his proposal.

“The continuing incidents of acts of piracy and armed robbery in waters off the coast of Somalia is of great concern to IMO member states, the IMO secretariat and to me personally,” Mr Mitropoulos said. “The Council’s endorsement of this high-level approach will help considerably in alleviating the situation, especially if support and assistance to ships is enhanced; and if administrations and the shipping industry implement effectively the guidance that IMO has issued and the notices promulgated regularly by naval operations centres.”

Talking isn't the same as taking action.

*A wonderful phrase from the mind of Jim Boren, well stated as

Dynamic inaction, doing nothing but doing it with style, ...providing the appearance of performance while not having to actually do something.

Mr. Boren is an expert on bureaucracies and the minions who inhabit them, and is the author of one of my favorite books, When in Doubt, Mumble.

The pirates of Guyana strike again

The pirates of Guyana strike again, attacking fishermen, as set out here:

Five armed sea pirates struck again in the Waini River robbing two fishing crews of a quantity of equipment and other items last Friday.

Their haul included fish, fish glue and a boat.

Land rush under the ice

Russia leads the way in seeking "resource rich" subsurface territory under Arctic, as set out here:

Thinning ice in the Arctic has raised hopes of accessing energy reserves.

Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves, has been challenged by other powers, including the US.

Moscow argued before a UN commission in 2001 that waters off its northern coast were in fact an extension of its maritime territory.

The claim was based on the argument that an underwater feature, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, was an extension of its continental territory. The UN has yet to rule upon the claim.

The teams aboard the mini-submarines Mir 1 and Mir 2 are expected to carry out scientific experiments and measurements on the seabed.

The Law of the Sea Convention allows states an economic zone of 200 nautical miles, which can sometimes be expanded.

To extend the zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory.

At the moment, nobody's shelf extends up to the North Pole, so there is an international area around the Pole administered by the International Seabed Authority.

Molten Eagle has thoughts:

The nominal purpose of the expedition is to provide new evidence proving the North Pole is an extension of Russia's coastal shelf (Lomonosov Ridge). Russia would thereby perfect earler claims to mineral rights the size of Germany, France and Italy combined - a region estimated to contain 10 billion cubic meters of hydrocarbons, plus diamonds and ores.

Under international law, Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark control economic zones within 200 miles of their continental shelves. Russia laid claim to vast swaths of undersea Arctic territory in 2001. But the four other polar countries objected. Danish scientists maintain the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland. The Russian expedition hopes to end the controversy with samples of the seabed unique to the motherland.

Maritime Monday 69 at Fred Fry International

Once again, Fred's on top of matters maritime with Fred Fry International: Maritime Monday 69, this week featuring feeder ships and much more.


Also, Xformed has a teaser up for his Monday Maritime Matters about James Lawrence of "Don't Give Up the Ship!" fame which he promises to turn into a full post this afternoon.

Bahrain gets praise for anti-piracy efforts

Reportedhere:

BAHRAIN's military and its security measures against extremism were praised by a top US official yesterday.

Bahrain's Navy and its other forces are something the country should be proud of, said US Naval Forces Central Command and Fifth Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff.

"I've been working here since February with the military and I've been uniformly impressed with the quality of the officers and sailors in the Bahrain Navy and other members of the Bahrain forces," he told a Press conference at the Naval Support Activity (NSA), Juffair.

He said Bahrain was the first country in the region to join the Combined Maritime Forces and it remained at the forefront of operations.

The Combined Maritime Forces commander said that since Bahrain had joined, it had operated in task force 152, (geographically responsible for the majority of the Gulf) and its ship Sabah and missile control boats regularly operated inside the coalition.

Navy Riverines in Action

Reported in the Marine Corps News as Navy ‘Riverines’ are irreplaceable asset to 13th MEU:

Navy Riverine Squadron One, a compact, water-borne unit from Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, has been the “tip of the trident” supporting counterinsurgency operations in Al Anbar province since May 5, and is now assisting the 13th MEU.

Conducting operations based off of MEU intelligence products, the RIVRON is constantly patrolling the murky waters and canals of Lake Thar Thar in search of insurgent activities and opening lines of communications within the community. The RIVRON also takes the responsibilities of a boat raid company, which the MEU realigned to accommodate a forecasted mission in the desert. Seeing the Riverines in action gives the feel of a Hollywood special operations flick – complete with mud, rifles, jet boats and a rough-and-tumble cast.

Understanding the Riverines is simple. Take a sailor from a weapons specialty, put him through Marine Corps School of Infantry, machine gunners course, a few civilian security courses and a boat school. Fly him to a war zone and place him directly into the fight. You now have a Riverine.

BZ, Riverines!

Photo information:

A Riverine from Riverine Squadron One leaps into action from a Small Unit Riverine Craft July 13. Riverine Squadron One is currently conducting counter insurgency operations in Al Anbar province with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Photo by: Sgt. Andy Hurt