US Navy to Establish New Red Sea Task Force

US Navy to Establish New Red Sea Task Force

 Source: Defense News published on 13 April 2022 an article titled “Combined Maritime Forces Establishes New Naval Group to Patrol Red Sea Region” by Megan Eckstein.  

The multinational Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East will stand up a new Combined Task Force-153 to address maritime threats in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.  The U.S. Navy will lead the task force initially, but will hand leadership over to a regional partner.  At any given time, the task force will consist of two to eight ships, which is not an increase in the present number of ships in the region but an effort to improve coordination and effectiveness.  They will operate from the Suez Canal through the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Yemen-Oman border and will address human trafficking and smuggling of both legal materials like coal and illegal weapons and drugs.  

Labels: Bab el-Mandeb, coal, drugs, Egypt, Gulf of Aden, human trafficking, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, security, smuggling, Somalia, Suez Canal, US Navy, weapons, Yemen