CTF-151 Rescues Pirated Vessel

You could see this coming a mile away, or at least I did. It wasn't difficult - like Babe Ruth calling his home runs, my fellow blogger over at the US Naval Institute blog Captain Alexander Martin set expectations with his July 2010 Proceedings article Pirates Beware: Force Recon Has Your Number.

Well, as the USNI Blog put it better, Pirates Beware: Force Recon Really Does Have Your Number. (<-- insider gouge there)

Here is the official announcement by the US Navy.

At approximately 5 a.m. local time, Sept. 9, 24 U.S. Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force (MRF) aboard USS Dubuque (LPD 8) operating under Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), boarded and seized control of Antigua-Barbuda-flagged, German-owned vessel M/V Magellan Star from pirates who attacked and boarded the vessel early Sept 8.

This successful mission by Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) secured the safety of the ship's crew and returned control of the ship to the civilian mariners. Nine pirates are currently under control of CTF 151, pending further disposition. This ship's crew has not reported any injuries or casualties. There were no reported injuries from the U.S. Maritime Raid Force.

The CTF-151 flagship, TCG Gökçeada, a Turkish frigate, was the first ship on scene, responding to a distress call received from Magellan Star, Sept. 8. Two additional warships assigned to CTF-151, USS Dubuque (LPD 8) and USS Princeton (CG 59) arrived in the vicinity of the attack to provide support to Gökçeada.

Well done. There are many things we can observe here that must be noted and recognized.

1) The crew of the M/V Magellan Star had a plan. As Barbara Starr at CNN reported, "Members of the ship's crew had locked themselves in a safe room, so the military felt it was a good time to board the ship, the spokesman said." That means the ship owners, ships captain, and ships crew deserves a lot of credit for having a plan and sticking too it. The prevented themselves from being captured after opening communications with CTF-151 and were able to successfully hold out for 8-10 hours until coalition forces arrived to retake the vessel.

This is part of the lessons learned process the industry had following the Maersk Alabama capture last year, where the crew was able to secure themselves away from the pirates, which was the essential element in ultimately foiling that successful hijacking. The latest incident reinforces the importance of the industries role in anti-piracy.

2) The Marines executed a mission they trained for, and apparently were able to prepare and accomplish the mission with a turn around of around 6-8 hours. The M/V Magellan Star was hijacked on the night of September 8th, but the Navy announcement says the rescue attempt was conducted at 5:00am local on September 9th. It cannot be understated how hard the Marines at Camp Pendleton have been working to address the piracy issue with their forward deploying MEUs.

It really dates back to 2008 when the 13th MEU under Col David Coffman deployed. Before the USS New Orleans (LPD 18) was rammed by one of our submarines, the ship supported Marines of the 13 MEU who tested several operational concepts in anti-piracy. I ran into Col Coffman again at USNI WEST in February of this year, and on the piracy panel he captured the attention of the room with his first statement, which I wrote about at the time:

"KILL THE PIRATES."

It was noteworthy about half the crowd began clapping and cheering, and the double take Dr. Lunsford gave the Col added to the effect. It was a clear ploy though, the Col appeared to me to use the red meat to get the crowds attention so he could articulate the range of capabilities on both sides of the spectrum the MEU brings to the fight. He touted the ARG solution but noted there was “no appetite at the policy level for kinetic solutions in Washington.” He then highlighted several problems including the division of organizational labor regarding Somalia. While CENTCOM has operational control over ships off Somalia, Somalia falls under AFRICOM, and the challenges in coordinating activities at sea onto land - at any level for anything - are enormous. I was left with the impression the division of labor was a problem of rigid control, which prevents any warfighter at sea from adapting quickly to situations.

But during that conversation Col Coffman used the attention of the audience he had gained to make clear the US Marine Corps has a range of capabilities that opens up a recipe of options for dealing with piracy - both at sea or on land. He discussed how the US Navy - US Marine Corps team will train and will be prepared when their number is called to deal with the any pirate problem. His words from that panel resonated today as we see the Navy/Marine Maritime Raid Force execute a perfect anti-piracy operation.

3) It is not a trivial point that the commander of CTF-151 is Turkish Navy Rear Adm. Sinan Ertugrul. The United States Navy is committed globally, and the cooperative nature of international task forces that work as a coalition to solve mutual problems is critical to the United States in being able to maintain our global presence as the US Navy is able to deploy fewer and fewer ships. Piracy is a problem, but it is an international problem and not something the US Navy should be attempting to solve alone. The international framework is critical to anti-piracy operations.

More importantly, the international approach is working. The turkish frigate TCG Gökçeada (F 494) was the first warship to respond to the M/V Magellan Star after it had been captured. In most cased of piracy, it is a coalition ship and not a US Navy ship that is the first responder to pirate hijackings. In the ~20 months of CTF-151 the command and coordination function of the coalition has evolved into a genuine capability that shows no signs of problems that coordination between different nations can often reveal. Now when something happens, military forces from multiple countries can take action, coordinate, and execute a highly complicated mission in less than half a day.

Try doing that with some of your business clients, or folks in the same organization but different department at work.

The benefits over time of coalition approaches to complicated problems around the world have the potential to create unique opportunities in the security environment not seen in the modern age. If a major terrorist attack (9/11 scale) against Paris or Beijing killing thousands was performed by Al Shabab, the response looks a lot different than it did when we responded to 9/11 in Afghanistan - because both China, Russia, India, NATO, and the EU are already involved with Somalia.

4) Observe the capabilities necessary to be successful in MSO.

Specifically trained manpower
Persistent forward presence
Capabilities including Helicopters and Small Boats

More red flags for the LCS if you ask me, because the ship isn't built to manage the specialized manpower necessary for these necessary activities associated with MSO, and the ship is not built for endurance, rather hull speed (which has yet to make a difference in any successful anti-piracy action to date). However, when you look at #3 it reinforces how the concept of the LCS is right even if the execution is a dumpster fire.

Well job 15th MEU.