US 5th fleet deploys drone task force to counter Iran in Gulf waters
AIRBORNE, SAILING AND UNDERWATER SYSTEM WILL PROTECT GULF WATERS
The US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet has said it will launch a new task force that incorporates airborne, sailing and underwater drones after years of maritime attacks linked to tensions with Iran.
Navy officials declined to identify which systems they would introduce from their headquarters in Bahrain. However, they promised the coming months would see the drones stretch their capabilities across a region of chokepoints crucial to both global energy supplies and worldwide shipping.
“We want to put more systems out in the maritime domain above, on and below the sea,” said Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet. “We want more eyes on what’s happening out there.”
Why it matters
The 5th Fleet includes the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which 20 per cent of all oil passes. It also stretches as far as the Red Sea reaches near the Suez Canal, the waterway in Egypt linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean, and the Bab Al Mandeb Strait off Yemen.
“I think that environment really suits us well to experiment and move faster,” Cooper said. “And our belief is if the new systems can work here, they can probably work anywhere else and can scale them across other fleets.”
I think that environment really suits us well to experiment and move faster. And our belief is if the new systems can work here, they can probably work anywhere else and can scale them across other fleets.” Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper | Chief of the US 5th fleet
Wave of attacks
It also represents a region that has seen a series of at-sea attacks in recent years. Off Yemen, bomb-laden drone boats and mines set adrift by Yemen’s Al Houthi militia have damaged vessels amid that country’s years-long war. Near the Strait of Hormuz, oil tankers have been seized by Iranian forces.
Suspicious explosions also
have struck vessels in the region, ranging from tankers owned by Western firms, ships tied to Israel and Iranian vessels. Those attacks have become part of a wider shadow war playing out across the region in the wake of then-president Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Iran even shot down an American drone amid the tensions.
While US President Joe Biden has said he’s willing to re-enter the deal, negotiations in Vienna
have stalled as Iran now has a new hardline president. That leaves open the possibility of further attacks by Iran.
No specifics
Cooper acknowledged the tensions, but declined to go into specifics. “We’re very aware of Iran’s posture and we’ll be prepared to deal with that appropriately,” the vice admiral said. “I’m going to leave it at that.”
Iran’s mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new
Navy task force. However, it operates its own drone fleet and has published video in the past of flyovers of American aircraft carriers in the region. The US military also has said fragments left by an attack in July off Oman that killed two people on an Israeli-linked ship corresponded to Iranian military drones.