Task Force 154: Pursuing Interforce Interoperability in Turbulent Waters – AGSIW

On June 14, Task Force 154  concluded the third iteration of Operation Compass Rose, a four-day maritime security training course held in Manama, Bahrain. The military drill delivered training modules on firefighting, damage control, and media content creation to over 40 participating naval personnel from countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Brazil, and Japan. Established under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces, a U.S.-led multinational naval coalition promoting security in Middle Eastern waters, Task Force 154 was launched on May 22, 2023 to enhance the operational readiness and naval capabilities of Combined Maritime Forces-partner countries.

Task Force 154 celebrated its first anniversary at a critical junction for the United States. The Houthi campaign targeting commercial shipping in and around the Red Sea has severely put to the test the U.S. deterrence architecture, casting a shadow on Washington’s credentials as a reliable security provider regionally. This tense situation underscores the gravity of the threats looming over the security of Middle Eastern waters and the need to step up interforce interoperability endeavors.

The Interoperability Challenge

Over recent years, the scope and membership of the Combined Maritime Forces, originally established in 2001, have significantly broadened, with new task forces established and nearly a dozen countries joining the multinational naval coalition. The most recent additions include Ecuador, Colombia, Poland, Finland, and Sweden.

While these reconfigurations have underscored the growing appeal of the U.S.-led security initiative, they have also raised important questions about how to best ensure optimal levels of interoperability and preparation among the armed forces of this fast-expanding coalition. The Combined Maritime Forces set up Task Force 154 to address this challenge.

Task Force 154 seeks to strengthen tactical and legal naval skills critical to safely operating in today’s maritime security environment. Core training sessions include modules on maritime awareness, maritime law, maritime interdiction, maritime rescue and assistance, and leadership development. The Combined Maritime Forces has tailored these trainings to meet participating countries’ capacity-building needs and requests.

Task Force 154 has also committed to broadening the military exercises’ target audience. To this end, the Combined Maritime Forces has sought to lower participation costs for potential beneficiaries by holding naval drills in host countries geographically close to the participant’s home country and designing capacity-building opportunities requiring minimal use of warships and aircraft, focusing primarily on courses taught on shore.

Leveraging available regional military facilities is a cornerstone of the training approach. For instance, Operation Compass Rose, held at the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain, allows participants to conduct drills at the U.S. Coast Guard’s visit, board, search, and seizure facility; the Embarked Security Intelligence Team 11’s training simulator; a U.S. Navy unit specialized in at-sea security operations; and the Combined Maritime Forces operational watch floor, a monitoring center for threat detection and maritime domain awareness. And Operation Southern Readiness, held at Port Victoria, Seychelles, benefits from support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime maritime training center.

The Geography of Naval Exercises

In its first year of activity, Task Force 154 conducted naval exercises across the Middle East, with six operations, including 30 training exercises and involving over 400 participants from 23 Combined Maritime Forces-partner countries.

Less than one week after its establishment, Task Force 154 held its first training exercise, Operation Compass Rose I. The drill involved over 50 attendees and offered practical exercises on visit, board, search, and seizure procedures, naval asset maintenance, and first aid. In December 2023, the Combined Maritime Forces held Operation Compass Rose II. In addition to courses focusing on critical naval competencies, more than 40 beneficiaries attended seminars on the latest trends in illicit maritime activities and maritime interdiction operations from NCIS Transnational Crimes Unit representatives and U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime officials. NATO Mission Iraq’s officials also joined as observers.

The Combined Maritime Forces held Operation Northern Readiness in mid-September 2023. Instructors led drills to bolster legal competencies and core naval skills, including visit, board, search, and seizure techniques, medical evacuations, and seamanship competence development. In mid-February the second iteration of Operation Northern Readiness gathered more than 150 beneficiaries, facilitators, and observers. Besides simulations on vital tactical and legal naval competencies, such as the U.N. Institute for Training and Research’s lectures on the law of the sea, the operation also staged exercises designed explicitly for troops operating in the Middle East’s maritime security context. For instance, the legal advisor of the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta, the EU counterpiracy mission in the northwestern Indian Ocean, gave lectures on combating piracy and drug smuggling activities. At the same time, the U.S. Task Force 59’s personnel focused on the applications and legal considerations of integrating uncrewed systems into daily naval operations. Drills simulating diving and explosive ordnance disposal operations were also staged, strengthening countermining capabilities.

First held in mid-September 2022, Operation Southern Readiness is the only naval drill that predates Task Force 154. The Combined Maritime Forces drew on the expertise of countries and organizations with a consolidated track record in maritime security operations to assist in designing and conducting naval training. Facilitators included personnel from Operation Atalanta, the Indian Navy, and U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. For instance, crew members of the Spanish frigate Numancia, the flagship of the EU counterpiracy mission, conducted training on search and rescue techniques, legal treatment of detainees, and movements through the interior spaces of a vessel. U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime officials also provided courses on maritime law enforcement and information sharing.

Held in mid-July 2023, the two-week Operation Southern Readiness II offered capacity-building training to over 160 participants from Comoros, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tanzania. In addition to modules covering conventional facets of maritime security, the instructors also held seminars on unmanned operations and leadership development. These new courses demonstrate the Combined Maritime Forces’ growing attention to enabling military personnel to efficiently counter next-generation threats to freedom of navigation and professionally lead operations in a multinational military environment.

Risks of Faltering Deterrence

The regional fallout of the Gaza war, including the imperative to secure international shipping routes and protect Israel from attacks, has prompted the United States to strengthen its military footprint regionally.

Since November 2023, Washington has begun a huge military buildup in Middle East waters. The United States has deployed high value naval assets, such as the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group and an Ohio-class submarine. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin twice extended the deployment of the “Ike” aircraft carrier, which totaled a rare nine-month combat deployment, before ordering the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to take over deterrent duties in Middle East waters. With Washington on high alert, as Iran delays military retaliation against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln strike group has also set course for the U.S. Central Command’s area of operation, underlying the pivotal function played by ship-based fighter jets in the U.S. defensive architecture.

However, despite Washington’s significant efforts and shows of force aimed to fend off Houthi attacks on commercial shipping through Operation Prosperity Guardian and degrade the Iran-backed group’s offensive capabilities through Operation Poseidon Archer, the limits of U.S. conventional deterrence are evident. After a short-lived pause in previous months, Houthi strikes on shipping have reached a new peak since the beginning of the summer, underscoring the group’s continued strategic determination and military resources to sustain asymmetric naval warfare operations.

As the Houthi campaign drags on, the United States’ credibility as a reliable security guarantor is increasingly being questioned. The emphasis in the Combined Maritime Forces and Task Force 154 on readiness drills, training, and legal competencies, even as the Houthis mount credible, sustained threats to commercial shipping and regional stability, reinforces the well-intentioned but increasingly outmoded, ineffective approach Washington has marshaled. Washington’s weakened image might induce its regional partners to question U.S. military credentials, potentially damaging the appeal of U.S.-led security initiatives, such as the Combined Maritime Forces.

Next Steps

The merits of Task Force 154 in fostering interoperability among Combined Maritime Forces partner countries have been clear. However, two fundamental principles should top the agenda of training planners to ensure the long-term success of the strategy to tackle the interoperability challenge.

First, field training should be tailored to the strategic priorities of beneficiaries. Naval exercises need to revolve around tactical and legal competencies relevant to the national security agenda of participating countries. This will provide beneficiaries with capabilities applicable to real-world threats in their daily naval operations, ultimately boosting the Combined Maritime Forces’ credentials as an effective training platform and encouraging new countries to scale up security cooperation with the U.S.-led maritime partnership.

Second, the naval drills should bolster the already-existing competencies of regional actors. Although advanced technical preparation and modern military equipment give the Combined Maritime Forces’ Western facilitators a tactical and strategic edge in conventional naval warfare over beneficiaries of training programs, the latter still retain valuable insights on regional security threats and how to counter them. Integrating indigenous expertise into military drills rather than replicating training models foreign to the local context can significantly contribute to crafting best practices that are more in tune with the operational and cultural specificities of the regional security environment.

Since security threats in Middle Eastern waters have ripple effects that resonate globally, efforts to promote regional stability can only be multinational. To this end, Task Force 154 can play a central role in the Combined Maritime Forces’ quest to cultivate interforce interoperability by developing cohesive rules of engagement and a common naval ethos grounded on the principle of freedom of navigation. It remains to be seen whether this focus on interoperability, rules of engagement, and a common naval ethos is informed by the threats in today’s regional maritime domain or merely represents a useful collection of yesterday’s approaches that could use some scouring.