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A small contingency of Naval Coastal Warfare Group (NCWG) 1 is currently living aboard the Khwar Al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT) and the Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) to provide surveillance and communications support to further enhance security.
The detachments arrived on the terminals with a reaction platoon of Marines from the Interim Marine Corps Security Force company out of Bahrain April 29, following an attack that killed two U.S. Navy Sailors and one Coast Guardsman April 24. NCWG 1, based in Kuwait, provides operational, planning, training and administrative support of 22 commissioned hardware equipped Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Units, Inshore Boat Units (IBU) and Harbor Defense Command (HDC) surveillance units in support of fleet operations.
"We work in conjunction with the ships in the area, and with the Marine and Iraqi Security Forces on the terminals," said Chief Damage Controlman Scott Martin, officer in charge of the detachment positioned on ABOT.
Using various methods and types of equipment for surveillance, NCW is the first line of defense in locating and identifying potential threats to the security of oil terminals. "We use visual and electronic surveillance to monitor all activity within a certain radius of the terminal," Martin said. "We then convey all information gathered to the coalition ships in the area, and the Marine and Iraqi security forces on the terminal."
Security measures include expansion of the security zones surrounding the terminals. There is a 2,000-meter Exclusion Zone around the terminals and a Warning Zone that extends to 3,000 meters. The new security zones provide a security platform that works in conjunction with legitimate trade inside Iraqi territorial waters, and still allows access to the critical ports in Southern Iraq.
"The zones around the terminals allow our coalition personnel to concentrate their efforts but still gives us enough time to communicate with, and if necessary, destroy hostile vessels before they can threaten the terminals," said Capt. Kurt Tidd, commander of the coalition maritime security forces operating in the North Arabian Gulf. |
