COMBINED MARITIME FORCES
Exercise Falcon Response brought together navies and coast guards from Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States to practice rescuing distressed mariners at sea.
The effort was coordinated by Combined Maritime Forces’ Combined Task Force (CTF) 152, a specialist task group designed to promote maritime security and closer cooperation between regional partners in and around the Gulf.
The aim of the exercise was for the international maritime forces to work together in testing and proving search and rescue techniques. Set against a fictitious scenario in which the Bahrain headquarters of CTF 152 received a distress call from an unknown location, the task groups involved in Falcon Response set about searching for casualties in the waters of the Gulf.
Each vessel took a turn as coordinator of a task, which involved estimating the location of the call and selecting a search pattern for the ships to follow. The vessel would then coordinate the other ships in searching an area of water for the casualty. Observers from the Saudi Navy and Coast Guard were also present with the intention of participating in future CTF 152 exercises.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to work with our brothers in the Kuwaiti Coast Guard, as well as CTF 152, to practice and prove search techniques that will be of benefit to all mariners in our waters,” said Kuwaiti Capt. Mohammad Al-Ansari, executive officer of the Kuwait Naval warship Al Fahaheel.
Based in Bahrain, CTF 152 is composed of officers from Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, France and the United States.
“I think the integration between all the participants was outstanding,” said Bahraini Cmdr. Rashed Al Ameen. “As navies, we only get to see each other at sea. This integration isn’t something we can build overnight — it is the result of training exercise like this one.”