Page 154 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019

Back in the Straits
HMAS Toowoomba and her ship's company returned to Fleet Base West at Garden Island, WA from their short deployment on 6 June, 2019. HMAS Toowoomba has been building maritime relations and conducting training at sea whilst participating in Exercises La Perouse in company with a French Navy Carrier group. During the deployment the ship visited ports in Chennai, India and Phuket Thailand. Her next stop is back into the Straits of Hormuz.
THAT occurred a decade ago aboard An- zac frigate HMAS Toowoomba which had departed the UAE and was returning to its patrol area in the North Arabian Sea, escort- ing carrier USS Nimitz which was then con- ducting strike missions into Afghanistan.
Standing on Toowoomba’s bridge as we cruised through the fabled strait in dead of night, not a thing was invisible. The radar showed otherwise with vessels large and small everywhere.
Even back then, plenty of people, ana- lysts and others, were pointing out how easily this could be blockaded by Iran and what devastating consequences would en- sue for the global economy from any hic- cup in the oil supply.
During this trip, the Navy thought- fully arranged a day aboard Nimitz for embarked media and some favoured sail- ors. The US Navy was as hospitable as ever, herding us onto the flight deck for landings of aircraft returning from Afghanistan. This was the real deal – aircraft on standby were fully loaded with live munitions.
Never having been aboard a nuke, your correspondent asked the US Navy PR per- son could he have a look at the reactor. The response – You are now standing as close to the reactor as you will ever get.
The point of all this is that the RAN and also the RAAF have had plenty of experi- ence operating in this part of the world and the new International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) mission isn’t all that different to what we’ve been doing there for a very long time.
Back in 1990, HMAS Adelaide de- ployed for the Kuwait War in what was then called Operation Damask, which has morphed into Operation Slipper, then Catalyst and now Manitou. Next ship de- ployment will be number 68.
Further, Australia is well-established in that part of the world, with a support facil- ity at al-Minhad Air Base (AMAB) in the UAE and a small but longstanding pres- ence in Bahrain supporting Australian naval activities in the region.
Whatever reservations the government may have had about signing onto President Trump’s beef with Iran – and there are sure- ly a few including that he could drag us into war – it would have been hard to say no.
We’re a close ally, we’ve championed freedom of navigation and we’ve had ships and aircraft operating in the Middle East for much of the last 30 years.
So far only the UK and Bahrain have also signed onto IMSC. The Europeans,
A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | CANBERRA
Unlike many others commenting on the new Australian commitment to protect shipping transiting to and from the Persian Gulf, your correspondent has actually sailed through the Straits of Hormuz.
154 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au