6th Fleet Focus: Observing Operations in the Med

This is something we intend to keep an eye on.

The US Navy is sending three warships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in that volatile region.

"This is an area that is important to us, the eastern Med," he said when asked about news reports of the ship movements. "It's a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity there for a while," adding that "it isn't meant to send any stronger signals than that, but it does signal that we're engaged, we're going to be in the vicinity and that's a very, very important part of the world."

Another military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because full details about the ship movements are not yet public, said the USS Cole is headed for patrol in the eastern Mediterranean and that the USS Nassau, an amphibious warship, would be joining it shortly. The officer said a third ship would go later, but he did not identify it by name.

The USS Cole (DDG 67) had been part of the HMS Illustrious (R06) Orion 08 deployment. That raises the possibility there are other ships from other countries that might react to the situation in Lebanon, and I am thinking specifically about France who has been all over Syria about staying out of Lebanon.

The third ship could be any number of ships. The USS San Jacinto (CG 56) is currently operating in the Black Sea. The USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) and USS Nicholas (FFG 47) both deployed to work with the NATO fleets recently. One of the other ships in the Nassau ESG that recently deployed could also be rotated into that theater.

However, we believe the most likely ship the Navy sends as the third ship will be the USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41). The first order of business for the Navy if hostilities breaks out is evacuation, not confrontation, and the other three ships have specific missions that probably will go on without interruption unless hostilities breaks out. If that is indeed the 3rd ship, it will be several days before we learn of it because it will take several days to arrive to that location.

It is very interesting the USS Nassau (LHA 4) is being sent. We note, the ship does not have Marines onboard, in fact we aren't really sure what the Nassau has onboard for this deployment, so it will be interesting to see how the ship (and what tools) will be utilized in this type of peacemaking scenario. I know we are very interested.

We only have two requests for those ships moving into that theater. Keep a sharp eye out for ASMs and mines, because the last ASM fired and last mine found were both in the 6th fleet AOR.