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Protecting Iraq
By CPL Mike McSweeney
Volume 50, No. 11, June 28, 2007 |
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Contact in the gulf
From out of the haze that looms over the Persian Gulf, an Iranian Naval vessel appears off the port stern of HMAS Toowoomba.
If Toowoomba’s CO CMDR Jaimie Hatcher is worried, he doesn’t show it.
In the six-month deployment in the Northern Persian Gulf, HMAS Toowoomba has had regular communications with the Iranian navy.
“Both sides are courteous,” CMDR Hatcher said.
“The whole idea is to make sure there is no miscalculation or misunderstanding.”
Iran’s territorial waters come very close to one of two Iraqi oil terminals that HMAS Toowoomba has been protecting as part of coalition maritime security operations.
“It’s only an 8x12 mile box off the coast of Iraq,” CMDR Hatcher said of the country’s territorial waters.
“There were many different tasks we needed to undertake in what was a very compressed bit of water space.”
Protection of the oil platforms, which are fed by pipelines from the Iraqi mainland, is critical.
“The oil that comes out of Iraq accounts for 85 – 90 per cent of the country’s GDP, so Iraq is fundamentally reliant on safe and secure waterways access,” CMDR Hatcher said.
While Iraqi marines guard the terminals themselves, coalition naval vessels create a security cordon around them. Defending allocated sectors also required HMAS Toowoomba to conduct Maritime Interception Operations.
“If there’s illegal or suspicious activity in the area then we may decide, based on certain “trip wires”, to get on board those vessels and investigate them more comprehensively,” CMDR Hatcher said.
The operations also extended to security sweeping any vessel that needed to approach the oil platforms, from little fishing boats known as dhows, to 300,000 tonne supertankers.
“We send a boarding party to that vessel to check the bona fide of the crew and make sure there is nothing suspicious aboard,” CMDR Hatcher said.
“That way we manage to protect the integrity of the oil platforms.”
Not every vessel that has approached the oil platforms, however, was authorised to do so.
“There have been incursions against the oil terminals which have required us to respond with almost the full range of our planned responses, which is everything from hailing them on a radio, all the way up to the use of direct fire to disable the vessel,” CMDR Hatcher said.
He said although Toowoomba hadn’t used all the options available to them, there had been several occasions where there was a long and involved escalatory process.
“On each occasion, the ship as a whole has performed admirably,” CMDR Hatcher said.
“Every incursion we’ve defeated, we’ve deterred, we’ve turned away from the oil platforms to make sure it remained secure was a highlight of this deployment.”
Boarding no party
Boarding an unknown vessel in the Persian Gulf can create some moments of anxiety, as crew from HMAS Toowoomba have discovered.
The Australian frigate has spent the last six months conducting maritime security operations to protect two Iraqi oil platforms in the Northern Persian Gulf.
AB Dan Hurst, who’s primary job is maintaining Toowoomba’s weapon and decoy system, has participated in boarding vessels that approached the coalition’s naval cordon around the oil platforms.
“We’ve had a couple of hairy boardings,” AB Hurst said.
“We had one vessel that came inside the sectors and we fired warning shots to get it to turn around.
“Then my team was tasked with boarding it later that day which was a bit hairy because we didn’t know what we were going into.”
AB Hurst said there had been a few incidents like that, but they had all ended well. Most of the boardings, however, were on ships which were required to enter the secured area.
“The primary role of a boarding party is to conduct security sweeps and clearing of merchant vessels that are approaching to pull along side the oil terminals,” AB Hurst said.
“We’ll also board suspicious vessels and conduct security checks on those vessels that come inside the sectors just to make sure they’re not a threat to the coalition units or the terminals themselves.
“As 85 – 90 percent of the Gross Domestic Product comes from these two terminals that we’re protecting, if one of them goes down it would be a big blow for the rebuilding of Iraq.”
AB Hurst said although some vessels were modern and clean, others proved more challenging to search.
“Some of the older ones aren’t in very good repair. In a couple of spots you’ve got to watch your footing. Sometimes there are a lot of compartments aboard and you can get a bit lost.”
AB Hurst said he had come to have a greater understanding and respect of Arab culture during his deployment
“About 99 per cent of the people we meet are really friendly, they just live a different way to us,” he said. |
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IN CHARGE: CO of HMAS Toowoomba, CMDR Jaimie Hatcher stands on the bow of his ship as Toowoomba steams away from the operational zone in the Persian Gulf.
Photo: CPL Mike McSweeney |
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SECURITY CHECKS: Able Seaman Dan Hurst and Able Seaman Steven Gibbs on one of HMAS Toowoomba’s rigid hull inflatable boats near the Al Basrah Oil Terminal in Iraq’s territorial waters.
Photo: CPL Mike McSweeney |
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REPLENISHMENT: A United States Navy Seahawk helicopter from the supply ship USNS Rainier transports stores to Toowoomba.
Photo: CPL Mike McSweeney
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WATCHFUL: Leading Seaman Bryce Honey performs duty onboard HMAS Toowoomba during an operational deployment to Northern Persian Gulf.
Photo: POEWL T.A. Helander
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VERTREP: Crew members onboard HMAS Toowoomba watch on as a United States Navy Seahawk delivers supplies from the USNS Rainier.
Photo: CPL Mike McSweeney
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THROUGH THE HAZE: HMAS Toowoomba on station in the Northern Persian Gulf.
Photo: CPL Mike McSweeney |
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