5th Fleet Focus: BRAVO ZULU CTF-151

The last hijacking off the coast of Somalia was on May 12th, 2009 according to NATO. Today is June 12th, meaning we have gone an entire month without a hijacking while disrupting many, many attacks.

Bravo Zulu to CTF-151, the Sailors and Airmen in the US Navy, naval coalition partner forces, and the maritime industry who have contributed towards this milestone. Keep up the great work, and stay safe.

As a side note, while it is easy to suggest that weather is playing a major factor, weather has not prevented a relative consistent number of attacks against commercial shipping from occuring. Additionally, it is pretty clear that when the pirates adjusted to activities east of Somalia in March and April, naval forces made a similar adjustment necessary to curb attacks.

While I will be the first to note this is certainly an enormous effort involving many folks, I think Rear Adm. Michelle J. Howard deserves a lot of credit here. Clearly she is doing something very right, even as we don't know much at all about how naval forces are operating.

I recall speaking to Noah Shachtman following a blogger roundtable in January, and we were both struck by how odd it was to here an Admiral discussing all the great things everyone but the US Navy was doing. At the time RADM Terry McKnight promised the US Navy was soon to engage, and I think 5 months later the tactical results suggest a promise has been forfilled.

I do not believe this is over by any means, and as Eagle One noted on Wednesday, neither does the US Navy. We are in a period of higher seas and have just entered the tsunami season off the east coast of Somalia, so for a few months anyway the Navy has time to prepare for the next phase. The second half of 2008 was a brutal period of consistent piracy, and there are few signs the second half of 2009 will be any different.

There is one thing I am looking forward to learning about. There is this enormous international naval armada off the coast of Somalia, and one thing I'd like to know is how the logistics of this operation is working. Is every nation supporting their own logistics? Obviously not, several nations have warships in the region but do not have logistics ships. Who is supporting who and how does this work exactly. What level of coordination truly exists? There is a great study to be done with this operation, particularly in regards to the cooperation of international naval forces, and I hope one day to read such a study in full.

The Navy has bought the administration time for Somalia, but without a solution on land, it can become time wasted. Hopefully the diplomatic effort is quietly in motion, and results on land are forthcoming.