Wednesday, March 2, 2024

Naval Assets & Libya

The following ships are off the Libyan coast (or sent to Libya but currently docked in Malta).

HMS Cumberland (F 85)
HMS York (D98)
HNLMS Tromp (F 803)
ITS Francesco Mimbelli (D 561)
ITS San Marco (L 9893)
ITS San Georgio (L 9892)
FS Tourville (D610)
HS Psara (F 454)
FGS Brandenburg (F215)
FGS Rheinland-Pfalz (F209)
FGS Berlin (A1411)
TCG Salihreis (F-246)
TCG Gemlik (F-492)
TCG Yarbay Kudret Güngör (A-595)
PLAN Xuzhou (530)
ROKN Choi Young (DDH-981)

Underway:
HMCS Charlottetown (FFH 339)
INS Jalashwa (L41)
INS Mysore (D60)
INS Aditya (A59)
USS Ponce (LPD 15)
USS Kearsage (LHD 3) (with 700 marines from the 26th MEU)

USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) (is somewhere in the Mediteranean)
USS Enterprise (CVN-65) (in the Red Sea, but has not been given orders to transit through the Suez Canal yet)

And we might hear nothing about submarines, but I cannot imagine the Italians, French and USA not having submarines deployed of the Libyan coast right now.

The 'Wild Cards'
Noble Mariner 2011 is happening at the moment in Spain. The homeport for the exercise is Cartagena in the Med. Both the German and French ships mentioned above should have been a part of the exercise, but the French and Germans decided to divert them. When other countries follow, we're talking about 4 MPA's, 2 LPD's, 1 AOR , 1 carrier, 8 frigates and 5 MCM vessels that could be diverted at any time.

Two French ships, the Mistral and the George Leygues have just left France, to start exercise Jean d'Arc 2011, an amphibious training mission in the Indian Ocean. They will be passing the region anyway.

No-Fly Zone
Britain and the US are looking at a no-fly zone. But this might be trickier than you think.
And besides that, the US/EU/NATO are unlikely to do anything without a UN mandate, that will be vetoed because Russia opposes a no-fly zone.

No comments: