The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) took command of Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 on 20th June 2019 with a ‘rainbow’ team – a multinational team of officers from eight countries.
It can be a challenge to forge together a new team and with a rainbow headquarters this has the additional difficulty of learning how to operate in a different language with a multitude of acronyms. CTF 151 has personnel from 8 countries and 3 continents on its staff – Korea, UK, UAE, Turkey, Oman, Thailand, Japan and Brazil and is a true representation of the Combined Maritime Forces partnership.
Over the first few weeks, while the ships attached to CTF 151 have been on routine patrol in the Gulf of Aden and the Maritime Security Transit Corridor, the Bahrain-based headquarters staff have been working and learning together in order to successfully complete their counter-piracy mission.
Commander CTF151, Rear Admiral Byeong-Ju Yu ROKN, said: “Throughout our 4 month tenure, we are focused on the deterrence and disruption of piracy. It is therefore very important for us to engage with regional partners to improve shared capabilities and capacity to ensure that piracy incidents do not reemerge.”
In August most of the headquarters staff will be joining the Republic of Korea Ship (ROKS) Daejoyoung followed by the ROKS Kang Gamchan on counter-piracy patrol.
“I am really enjoying working together with such a mix of cultures and tasting the different types of food! We are all pulling together to achieve the same aim, so we can follow in the successful footsteps of our predecessors in CTF 151,” said Lieutenant Commander Pongsatorn Ying-in, Royal Thai Navy.
Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) 