The Middle East and The Maritime Power of The US

The creator of the concept of U.S. Sea power, Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, primarily insisted on creating a strong naval force to ensure safe shipping around the world and prevent enemies from approaching the borders of the United States. In the twentieth century, especially after World War II, the situation changed and since then Washington had intended to control other regions through the permanent presence of its military bases there.

The power of the U.S. Navy is based on its ability to use or threaten force, but for the United States the Navy also perform important diplomatic and police functions. To carry out these tasks, the US Navy regularly employs Marines, amphibious assault forces and the Coast Guard.

These three naval services have several interconnected capabilities that they say make up the U.S. sea power.

According to the US naval doctrine, this sea power is realized through the following elements:

Forward presence. The navy deploys to various regions where the United States has a strategic interest.

Deterrence. It discourages adversaries from acting against the United States and its allies and partners. For example, U.S. Navy ballistic-missile submarines serve as a leg of the nuclear triad, particularly valued for their ability to hide and stay a credible threat during a potential nuclear conflict.

Sea control. Sea control provides a freedom of action that is required for the pursuit of other objectives, such as shipping protection, military sealift—which includes using cargo ships to deploy military assets—and blockades.

Power projection. It can threaten or direct strikes—from ballistic-missile attacks to amphibious assaults—against targets ashore for sustained periods.

Maritime security. It protects seaborne commerce—some 90 percent of global trade travels by ship—and generally maintains order at sea. Operations include counterpiracy, drug interdiction, environmental protection, and other law enforcement measures.

Humanitarian aid. It responds to natural and man-made disasters with medical, food, and logistical and security assistance. For example, the U.S. military constructed a large pier several miles off the shore of the Gaza Strip to allow cargo ships to offload humanitarian aid shipments for the enclave.

The last two points are widely applied in diplomacy and foreign policy, although even at the very beginning of the formation of US sea power, such a concept as “gunboat diplomacy” appeared, based on a combination of US military and political actions against a number of countries. However, Washington has now taken this approach to a new level by mixing civilian and military goals and missions.

According to the U.S. Naval Warfare Doctrine, “key actions of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard that enhance national security include improving cooperation and mutual capacity building, raising collective awareness around the world, and providing comprehensive and effective options for responding to threats in the maritime sphere. The Global Maritime Partnership is a comprehensive framework through which the U.S. Government encourages and maintains cooperative relationships with international maritime partners. Together with other US armed forces, other US agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, industry, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard solve mutual maritime problems such as freedom of navigation, trade security, deterrence of terrorism and protection of the resources of the oceans, on a voluntary, informal and non-binding basis”.[i]

According to a report to the US Congress dated August 6, 2024[ii] , the US Navy has 296 ships, of which 12 aircraft carriers, 31 amphibious landing ships, 15 cruisers, 73 destroyers, 23 frigates and 66 submarines represent the main striking force (of which 12 are equipped with ballistic missiles).

According to the Pentagon’s plans, they want to increase the size of the fleet to 381 ships, including 31 larger amphibious assault ships, which should be built in the 2030s. In addition, the Navy plans to add 150 unmanned vessels by 2045 as part of its goal of creating “hybrid forces” that will operate above and below the waterline, that is, surface and underwater drones. Given the use of such means in the Black Sea by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, these drones may have a certain escalation effect when deployed. Although it is more likely that initially unmanned vehicles will be used for reconnaissance and reconnoitring purposes.

Part of the decision to modernize the U.S. Navy was influenced by China’s success in developing its navy.[iii] However, the Pentagon and the White House take into account both Iran and Russia, especially the appearance of supersonic weapons in the latter, which were used in practice in its special military operation in Ukraine.

And although the United States is strengthening its presence off the coast of China, nowhere is the maritime power of this country more evident than in the Middle East region. The Central Command of the U.S. Navy and the Fifth Fleet are located in Bahrain. It has jurisdiction over an area of about 2.5 million square miles, including the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the North Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The mission of the Central Command of the United States Navy is to conduct maritime security operations, cooperate in theater of military operations security and strengthen the maritime capabilities of partner countries in order to ensure security and stability in the area of operations of the U.S. 5th Fleet.[iv]

A special naval Middle East Force was established in the United States in 1949, and in 1971 the U.S. Navy base was deployed in Bahrain.

Qatar is home to the regional headquarters of the US Central Command.

At the moment, several thousand U.S. service members are stationed in the Middle East, and several thousand more on ships at sea in the region, although the numbers fluctuate. In total, the United States has military facilities across at least nineteen sites—eight of them considered to be permanent by many regional analysts —in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military also uses large bases in Djibouti and Turkey, which are part of other regional commands but often contribute significantly to U.S. operations in the Middle East. [v]

All host countries have basing agreements with the United States, except Syria, where American troops have actually occupied two zones where they have stationed their bases.

As of early August, several large formations of warships were operating in the region, including an aircraft carrier strike group and an amphibious assault group.

Typically, an aircraft carrier group includes one aircraft carrier, one cruiser, one attack submarine, four to six destroyers and one supply vessel with the necessary ammunition and equipment. Such a group has about seven and a half thousand employees. The aircraft carrier hosts 75 aircraft, including at least 40 strike fighters. Therefore, we can say that the naval power of the United States implicitly includes an instrument of air supremacy, which helps to quickly project strike force over longer distances.

In previous years, the United States kept its ships in the Persian Gulf to deter Iran, and also partly because of the fight against piracy in the Horn of Africa region. The presence has been significantly increased this year due to regional tensions caused by Israel’s war against the Palestinians, as well as attacks by the Houthis, who control the Gulf of Aden in the Arab Sea and the Strait of Hormuz in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, the coalition of 20 countries assembled by the United States at the end of last year to conduct the  Operation Prosperity Guardian, did not lead to anything. [vi]

Of the Arab countries, only Bahrain joined it, apparently only for the reason that it hosts the US Fifth Fleet.

And the Houthis have continued and continue to regularly launch missiles and drones both at Israel and at various ships in the Red Sea.

It should be added that given that Iran is designated as a threat in the doctrinal documents of the White House, the US State Department and the Pentagon, any forces associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran are designated as potential enemies of the United States. At least six countries are considered potentially dangerous due to their presence in them groups or movements that are in any way oriented towards Iran, either because of religious ties (Shiism), or because of any support from Tehran. Iraq is the most formidable force, as there are at least five groups with tens of thousands of members. This is Kataib Hezbollah, The Badr Organization, , Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada (more than one hundred thousand people in total). Hezbollah operates in Lebanon in the number of up to 45 thousand fighters. Palestine is represented by Hamas (from 30 thousand) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (estimates vary from one thousand to 15 thousand people). The Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Zainabiyoun Brigade, the Baqir Brigade and the Quwat al-Ridha Brigade (approximately 20 thousand) are located in Syria. The Ansarallah Houthi movement in Yemen numbers about 30 thousand of at least capable fighters, although the total number is about 200 thousand) There are no data on the Al-Ashtar brigades in Bahrain. Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the existence of an armed underground and the planning of any operations against US Navy personnel.

Most of these groups, according to statements by American experts, regularly fire at US bases in the region, as well as ships somehow connected with the United States and Israel. [vii] 

Given such real and imagined threats, the United States is likely to strengthen its naval presence in the region.

In addition, from the point of view of global positioning, the Middle East is organically linked to the Mediterranean region, which is under NATO control and where the United States also has military bases. The U.S. Sixth Fleet is based in Naples. Therefore, from this direction, North Africa may be threatened (as was the case in Libya during the NATO operation against this country in 2011), as well as the entire Levant, where the United States and its allies have antagonists in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.

On the other hand, the vast Indo-Pacific region adjoins the Middle East, for which the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific region (FOIP) is applied.

It should be noted that FOIP, in addition to stimulating the interaction of US partners through Washington‘s deterrence strategy, offers a conceptual approach in contrast to China‘s “One Belt, One Road“ strategy, drawing the attention of Australia and Europe to the importance of promoting economic development and investment in Southeast Asia.

Now this concept is also considered as a certain framework for expanding the network of partners and allies dealing with security issues in the In the Indo–Pacific region, in order to ease the burden borne by the United States, simply shifting it to other countries. [viii]

Therefore, the ongoing militarization of the Middle East by the United States, one way or another, will concern the security of the whole of Eurasia, although, first of all, this effect will be obvious for its southern sea belt. 

The Middle East and The Maritime Power of The US

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[i]             https://dnnlgwick.blob.core.windows.net/portals/14/Courses/Maritime%20Staff%20Operators%20Course/NDP-1-Naval-Warfare-(Mar-2010)_Chapters2-3.pdf?sr=b&si=DNNFileManagerPolicy&sig=2lMMssNQ%2FLyl1Fipw3oHsaF%2FKqAPTuJt6iVyiLbwKkA%3D

[ii]             https://sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/RL32665.pdf

[iii]             https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL33153

[iv]             https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/

[v]             https://www.cfr.org/article/mapping-growing-us-military-presence-middle-east

[vi]             https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/world/middleeast/us-houthi-clash.html

[vii]             https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/tracking-anti-us-and-anti-israel-strikes-iraq-and-syria-during-gaza-crisis

[viii]             https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/rise-free-open-indo-pacific-challenge-deterrence-kenneth-weinstein-william-chou