Another Pirate Fighting Coalition

There is CTF-151, the EU, NATO, whatever we are calling the Chinese and Indian activities, and we don't even count CTF-150...

But soon there will be the Arab anti-pirate force too? Yep.

Arab states of the Gulf and Red Sea said on Monday that they are planning a joint anti-piracy force, insisting defence of the crucial Red Sea waterway was the "primary responsibility" of littoral states.

Saying it was necessary to prevent the spread of piracy to the Red Sea or the Gulf, 11 regional states agreed to set up an all-Arab Navy Task Force, to be led at the outset by the Saudis, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The delegates to the conference in the Saudi capital stressed the "importance of the exclusion of the Red Sea from any international arrangements, especially the fight against sea piracy."

At some point partnership needs to be about something besides deconfliction. There are European Navies serving in multiple groups under different commands. I do wonder if what we are seeing is cooperation, or competition.

We have until August before the winds will reduce enough for piracy to potentially return in full. Hopefully by then someone can explain how all of these commands are productive, as opposed to being counter-productive.

Check out this image of Somali piracy at the NATO Shipping Centre. It is enormous, but very well detailed. More images of SNMG2 crossing the Suez here.