Warships, helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft from New Zealand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States have joined forces during Operation ‘Eureka’, a Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) counter-terrorism operation conducted in late February in the Northern Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman.
Similar to previous CTF-150 operations, Operation Eureka demonstrated the international resolve to deter and disrupt terrorist organisations from using the seas to move illicit goods, including narcotics, weapons and charcoal, to fund their activities. This operation, which surged resources into a specific area, was aimed at maintaining a heightened Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) presence in this important region, keeping shipping lanes open for commercial traffic and those using the seas for legal purposes.
Commodore Brian Santarpia from the Royal Canadian Navy and Commander CTF-150, said:
A heightened presence of warships in an area contributes to the disruption of terrorist-related activity at sea.
It also ensures security, safety and freedom of movement for commercial shipping in international waters, thereby promoting greater confidence in the maritime community to safely navigate in a region which includes three of the world’s six maritime chokepoints.
The participating warships were the US Navy patrol boats Sirocco and Chinook, the US destroyer Dewey and the Pakistani frigate Tariq. Sirocco and Chinook’s participation in Operation Eureka was the second time that ships from Patrol Coastal Squadron ONE have supported CTF-150 this year, with their sister ships USS Firebolt and USS Thunderbolt operating with the Canadian-led Task Force for five weeks earlier in January and February.
For the destroyer USS Dewey, this period of time supporting CTF-150 was the third in three months.
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Image: CMF