Naval Forces Central Command

• Shippers Resist Calls to Arm Against Pirates

The piracy-plagued shipping industry is resisting calls to deploy armed guards on cargo ships, fearing it will not stop pirate attacks and could make shipping lanes off Somalia's coast even more dangerous. Since the April 8 attack on the U.S.-flagged ship Maersk Alabama, Vice Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, and several private security specialists have suggested arming crews or hiring private security firms to bolster ship defenses.

• The Washington Times
• April 21, 2009

• Department of the Navy

...Leach. Director, Naval Criminal Thomas A. Betro. Investigative Service. C...Major Shore Commands:. Commander, Naval Air Systems Command Vice Adm. D...Willard, USN. Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, USN. Commander, Milit...Commander, Naval Forces Central Command Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, USN. Commande...

• U.S. Government Manual
• Nbr. 2008, January 2008

• An Anti-Pirate Policy That Works ; Arming Merchant Ships Thwarts Piracy

Merchant ships need guns to fight pirates. Seven months ago, Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama and held its captain hostage. Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama again this week but were repulsed because the Maersk Shipping Line put armed guards on its ships. Pirates successfully attacked another unarmed ship on Monday, leaving 28 members of its crew dead. On Tuesday, 36 crew members of a Spanish ship were released only after pirates were paid a $3.3 million ransom. But when the pirates got within 300 yards of the Maersk Alabama, the ship tried evasive maneuvers and its security team successfully engaged in small-arms fire. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said the actions of the Maersk Alabama were following the maritime industry's "best practi...

• The Washington Times
• November 20, 2009

• U.S. Navy Captures Pirate Ship: ; Destroyer Stops Sailors Off Coast of Somalia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

• Charleston Daily Mail
• January 24, 2006

• Navy Seizes Suspected Pirate Ship

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

• Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
• January 23, 2006

• Piracy Off Somalia: Prosecutions, Procrastination And Progress.

... feature of the various counter-piracy naval operations in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Ade... ample evidence of guilt, or the naval forces were confiscating possessions in dubious circumsta... by the experience of the Danish Command and Support ship HDMS Absalon. This vessel, in ter... Gortney (Commander US Naval Forces, Central Command, headquartered in Bahrain), reported that ...

• Mondaq Business Briefing
• Nbr. 2010, January 2010

• Freakonomics of Maritime Piracy

... and political progress in southern and central Somalia.11 The clan elders established an autonomo... the pirates holding the ship begged Western naval forces for assistance to safeguard the payoff. "We...: Task Force 151, which reports to the Commander of the Naval Forces, U.S. Central Command; Operati...

• Brown Journal of World Affairs, The
• Vol. 16 Nbr. 2, April 2010

• U.S. Navy Seizes Suspected Pirate Ship Off Somali Coast

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

• Augusta Chronicle, The
• January 24, 2006

• U.S. Navy Seizes Suspected Pirate Ship

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

• Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
• January 23, 2006

• Traversing the Persian Gauntlet: U.S. Naval Projection and the Strait of Hormuz

Scrambling a fighter jet from Qatar or the UAE to Iran, for example, only takes several minutes. [...] the United States will continue to assist Gulf countries in maintaining land-based missile defense systems and other coastal defenses in case of an Iranian or terrorist attack.55 The reduced USN presence would also offer fewer opportunities for unnecessary escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran on the high seas if Iran were to send another swarm of armed patrol boats to harass the USN, as it did in 2008.

... in Manama, Bahrain, is one of many naval forces in the Gulf, along a sizeable and growing Arab nav...Central Command's jurisdiction, which includes approximate...

• The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs
• Vol. 34 Nbr. 1, January 2010