Thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) website, not just because of what they have been doing, but also because of what they could be, a model for multilateral maritime law enforcement organizations in other areas as well.

Recently we have had reports of Webber class FRCs doing drug interdiction under CTF150.

• “Coast Guard FRC Seizes Illegal Narcotics in Gulf of Oman” –Seapower/Same Job, Different Hemisphere, Sept. 2022.
• U.S. Naval Forces in Middle East Interdict $29 Million in Illegal Drugs” –Seapower, Oct. 2022

The CMF News portion of their website has even more USCG stories. These are from only the last six months.

• U.S. Naval Forces in Middle East Interdict $29 Million in Illegal Drugs
• U.S. Coast Guard Ship Seizes $48 Million in Drugs in Middle East
• U.S. Coast Guard in Middle East Seizes $85 Million in Heroin
• U.S. Ship Seizes Illegal Narcotics in Gulf of Oman
• U.S. Coast Guard Ship in Middle East Interdicts $17 Million in Drugs

Earlier I proposed a “Combined Maritime Security Task Force Pacific.” CMF could provide a model for creation of similar maritime law enforcemernt task forces in several locations.

CMF is a creation of Fifth Fleet. It has different task forces for different geographic areas. Potentially other geograph fleets could form similar organizations.

• 7th Fleet might sponsor one CMF task force for the South China Sea and another for Oceania
• 4th Fleet might sponsor a task force for the Eastern Pacific drug transit zone and another for the Caribbean
• 6th Fleet one for the Gulf of Guinea

These would be law enforcement alliances which should be more welcomed than military alliances. They might be extended to include SAR, disaster response, and Marine Environmental Protection.