Sea Power - April 2017

Ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
started winding down, the U.S. Navy has
increased its focus on and presence in the
Asia-Pacific. And while Southeast Asia has
been a priority for the Navy, with the grow-
ing influence of China and other nations in
the region, the Middle East and West Asia
remain key parts of that shift.

One recent exercise that took place in the North Arabian Sea led by the Pakistani Navy shows just how the focus in the region has changed for the U.S. Navy over the years.

AMAN 2017, a large, biennial, multinational exercise that this year featured participants from 37 countries, including the United States, Russia and China, ran from Feb. 10-14. In its sixth iteration, the focus of this year’s exercise was on maritime security, especially counterpiracy and counterterrorism.

Lt. Cmdr. Rick Chernitzer, a Navy spokesman at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, said in an e-mail that the dock landing ship USS Comstock took part in AMAN 2017, joining other vessels from the United Kingdom, Australia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan during an international fleet review conducted in a maritime exercise with the Pakistani supply ship PNS Nasr. The ship also hosted a member of the Pakistani Navy for “professional exchanges with Comstock watchstanders,” he added.

“AMAN 17 presented a valuable opportunity for Comstock Sailors to strengthen their own professional knowledge, gain experience in working with other maritime professionals and help reinforce regional relationships,” he said. “The U.S. is committed to working with regional partners and allies to enhance mutual capabilities in order to address threats to freedom of navigation and international commerce.

“AMAN 17 is just one of many exercises that demonstrate the strong and vital link of the U.S.-Pakistan partnership in ensuring stability in the region. Our forces are focused on cooperatively engaging with any and all participating nations to share knowledge and experiences,” he said.

Comstock is deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group in the Fifth Fleet area of operations. The ship supports maritime security operations to “reassure allies and partners, and preserve freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce in the region,” Chernitzer said.

Turkey and Russia were first-time participants, creating an interesting dynamic in this year’s exercise due to the latter’s complicated relationship with the United States in recent years.

John Schaus, a fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said AMAN 2017 appears to be fairly consistent with a lot of other large multinational exercises in which the U.S. Navy participates. The Navy takes part in them because it wants to get a better understanding of how other navies operate, so that they will be able to better communicate and interact with each other when real-world situations arise.

While it’s hard to nail down the number of exercises the Navy participates in each year, as it depends on how one defines an exercise, the service certainly has become involved in a lot of them around the world with many different navies in recent years. And the exercises themselves seem to grow with each iteration, as AMAN has done since its inception in 2007, when Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States brought a total of 14 ships to the exercise.

“It is a general trend that exercises tend to grow in terms of number of participants over time,” Schaus said, while adding the caveat that it tends to be more of a gradual change year over year than a sudden surge.