For the sixth time the Royal Navy has handed over the reins of a task force clamping down on piracy and terrorism in the Middle East. Two dozen sailors and Royal Marines, led by Commodore Bob Tarrant, have directed the operations of Combined Task Force 150 in the Indian Ocean for the past four months.
Four months of directing the struggle against piracy and terrorism across swathes of ocean east of Suez has come to an end for two dozen British sailors and marines, who’ve handed over tenure of an international task force.
Since the late summer, a team from the Royal Navy’s Battlestaff, normally based on Whale Island in Portsmouth, have overseen the movements of Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, one of three naval groups in the Middle East striving to guarantee safe passage of the Seven Seas for law-abiding mariners.
In the case of CTF150, its remit is maritime security in the Indian Ocean, choreographing the movements of half a dozen ships across 2½ million square miles of sea – more than eight times the size of the North Sea – from headquarters in Bahrain.
The scale of the task has been likened to providing police cover for an area the size of western Europe with six patrol cars.
Typically the ships operate independently, hundreds of miles apart, but earlier this month they came together for a concerted operation on both sides of the Bab al Mandeb Strait at the foot of the Red Sea.
The narrows – just 11 miles wide – are regarded as one of the world’s most important ‘choke points’; block the strait and there is disruption to shipping on a global scale.
That ‘focused effort’ around the strait saw the forces of Djibouti and Yemen take part alongside the regular members of the task force – something the outgoing commander of CTF, Cdre Bob Tarrant, is keen to see more of.
“Building relationships and working together with regional nations is vital to developing enduring maritime security in the key choke points used by so many commercials,” he said.
“Only by building trust with the maritime community – through interaction at sea – will we be able to effectively pursue our common cause of overcoming security threats.”
Handing over the reins of the task for to his Australian counterpart, Cdre Charles McHardie, Cdre Tarrant thanked all those who’d taken part in and supported this autumn’s operations.
“I am extremely grateful for the fantastic work undertaken by our ships at sea and I am proud of my team for having contributed wholeheartedly – and to the best of their abilities – to advance the cause of maritime security.”
This is the sixth time the RN has been in charge of CTF150 since its inception ten years ago, while the Royal Australian Navy is taking the helm for the fourth time.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, December 21, 2012; Image: Royal Navy