Compass Points - FONOP Report
Freedom of navigation
Compass Points - FONOP Report
Freedom of navigation
March 6, 2024
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Freedom of navigation?
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One of the chief missions of the Department of the Navy is to maintain freedom of navigation across the oceans of the world. The US Navy continually conducts FONOPs -- Freedom of Navigation Operations -- around the globe. The Department of Defense each year, normally in April, publishes a Freedom of Navigation Report. The current version is 2022. The 2023 report is scheduled to be released soon. But what will the 2024 report say?
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The US believes that the ocean highways of the world should be kept open for every country to use. Not all nations agree. Writing for Reuters, Adam Makary reports, "Ships entering Yemeni waters must obtain permit, Houthi minister says."
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CAIRO, March 4 (Reuters) - Ships will have to obtain a permit from Yemen's Houthi-controlled Maritime Affairs Authority before entering Yemeni waters, Houthi Telecommunications Minister Misfer Al-Numair said on Monday.
Houthi militants have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's offensive in Gaza.
The near-daily attacks have forced firms into long and costly diversions around southern Africa, and stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could destabilise the wider Middle East. The United States and Britain have bombed Houthi targets in response.
"(We) are ready to assist requests for permits and identify ships with the Yemeni Navy, and we confirm this is out of concern for their safety," Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement, reported Al-Numair as saying.
-- Reuters
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Supposedly in protest of the fighting in Gaza, the Houthis began firing missiles at ships in the Red Sea. Nothing much happened at first and nothing much was done to respond. After a long delay, the US and allies made some minor strikes inside Yemen. But the attacks by the Houthis have continued, Recently, Houthi missiles sunk a ship in the Red Sea. Now, the Houthis want ships transiting the Red Sea to get a permission slip.
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The Houthis are an Iranian proxy force. If the Houthis can successfully require a permission slip for the Red Sea, then perhaps Iran will require a permission ship for the Persian Gulf. On the other hand, perhaps when the fighting in Gaza is over, the Houthis will stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Maybe. Maybe not.
Reuters reports on what former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said about the situation.
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Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there "is good reason to doubt" that the Iran-allied Houthis would stop their assaults on vessels if a ceasefire ends Israel's major military operations in Gaza.
"They may decide that they like the idea of controlling the amount of shipping going through the Red Sea, and will continue this for an indefinite period of time,"
-- Reuters
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When small nations are causing large problems to global navigation that is when the Navy must conduct Freedom of Navigation Operations. The FONOP might be simply sailing through contested waters, or it might require something more. It might require an Amphibious Ready Group - Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) to park offshore, backed up by a nearby carrier strike group. That force gives US policy makers options. That force helps the recalcitrant foreign country to rethink their interference with freedom of navigation.
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The US must keep freedom of navigation open around the world and at the same time deter a variety of global threats and challenges instigated by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and others. To do all that 24/7/365 the US needs advanced military forces including worldwide Naval forces continually on global patrol. Worldwide Naval forces on patrol feature well trained, equipped, upgraded, and enhanced Marine combined arms maneuver forces.
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When an ARG-MEU arrives offshore and forces a small nation to rethink its conduct, that encourages much larger foreign nations to rethink their conduct. The result is more freedom of navigation and a more peaceful world. Marines have a vital role to play, but they cannot do it sitting on islands. Marines must get back out on patrol.
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Houthi permission slips? Absolutely not. The US must not accept anyone placing tollgates on the world's oceans. With enough ARG-MEUs on constant patrol, the US can keep the world waterways open for all.
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Reuters - 03/04/2024
Ships entering Yemeni waters must obtain permit, Houthi minister says
By Adam Makary
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Department of Defense
Annual Freedom of Navigation Report
Fiscal Year 2022
Modern day Barbary Pirates…..and with today’s neutered Marine Corps a Marine Lieutenant w a Mameluke is all we have to send in response THANKS TO FORCE DISASTER!
A minor nitnoid in the conversation is to remember that under International Law, nations have rights over their own waters - what is at issue here just as it is elsewhere is the identification of what waters such rights cover and what waters are beyond such jurisdiction under international law and agreement.