The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet announced on Wednesday it will launch a new task force that incorporates airborne, sailing, and underwater drones next years of maritime attacks connected to continuing tensions with Iran.
Navy officials rejected to identify which systems they would introduce from their headquarters on the island nation of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.
- However, they declared the upcoming months would see the drones stretch their abilities across a region of chokepoints crucial to both global energy stocks and worldwide shipping.
“We want to put more systems out in the maritime domain above, on, and below the sea,” replied Vice Adm.
Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet.
Brad Cooper, who manages the 5th Fleet. “We want more eyes on what’s happening out there.”
The 5th Fleet includes the all-important Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.
It more 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 el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.
In april test led by the Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
The systems being managed by the 5th Fleet’s new Task Force 59 will include some of those included in an April test led by the Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
- Drones used in that exercise combined ultra-endurance aerial surveillance drones, surface ships the Sea Hawk and the Sea Hunter, and smaller underwater drones that resemble torpedoes.
The 5th Fleet includes shallow water areas, salty waters, and temperatures in the summertime that can reach above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) with high humidity. That can show roughly for crewed vessels, let simply those running remotely.
“I think that situation surely suits us well to explore 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 over other fleets.”
It also represents a region that has seen a range of at-sea attacks in recent years.
Yemen, bomb-laden drone boats and mines set adrift by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have destroyed vessels amid that country’s yearslong war.
Near the United Arab Emirates and the Strait of Hormuz, oil tankers have been taken by Iranian forces.
United Arab Emirates
Suspicious reports also have struck vessels in the region, covering tankers owned by Western firms, ships tied to Israel, and Iranian vessels.
Those attacks have become part of a wider dark war playing out over the region in the track of then-President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to unilaterally remove from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran also shot down an American drone amid the tensions.
While President Joe Biden has said he’s willing to re-join the deal, negotiations in Vienna have stalled as Iran now has a new hard-line president.
President Joe Biden has said
That leaves open the possibility of more attacks by Iran — as well as by Israel, which has been assumed in incidents targeting Iranian shipping and its nuclear program.
Cooper noticed the tensions in his comments to reporters Wednesday but refused to go into specifics.
“We’re very aware of Iran’s posture and we’ll be prepared to deal with that properly,” the vice-admiral said. “I’m going to leave it at that.”
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