Finding Stability with Somalia's Nascent Navy

Here's a good article from the Somalia Report on the TFG's underfunded, underequipped Navy. The littorals play no small part in Somalia's instability. Piracy from Somalia's shores continues to threaten the Indian Ocean, despite a dropping success rate due to a greater acceptance of embarked armed security teams. Al Shabaab has begun to exercise its own crude maritime force, skirmishing with the Kenyans at sea in November and December. Al Shabaab also receives funding, weapons, and fighters from the sea. Finally, some combination of Somali pirates/criminals/al Shabaabers continues attempts to kidnap tourists from Kenyan coastal areas.

Building indigenous naval capacity is one of the ways that the international community can help stabilize Somalia. As we know from recent experience trying to stand up Iraq's Navy, building a nascent navy is not easy, inexpensive, or fast. US legislation on security force assistance doesn't facilitate multiyear funding mechanisms optimal for these sorts of efforts, and Navy culture and force structure (outside of MCAST) are not conducive to working with smaller navies. However, there may be a role for US and allied support to the African Union in training, equipping, and deploying an AMISOM maritime capability. The US State Department's ACOTA program has supported training Ugandan Defense Forces which are the bulwark of the AMISOM mission. A program to deploy willing West African navies to Somalia under the auspices of the AU, train and equip them with patrol boats that they might retain following mission completion, might be enough to bolster the tiny Somali Navy and reduce the impact of maritime crime, insurgency, and terrorists who ply the coast of Somalia. In turn, these navies would redeploy more capable, interoperable, and experienced to defend their own shores.

The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency.