US-Sponsored 30-Nation Naval Exercise Concludes in Bahrain

 

With a closing address given in Bahrain on February 20, Vice Adm. George Wikoff, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), has brought to a close International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025, completing the ninth iteration of this international naval exercise since it was first was held in 2012. This year, the main centers of exercise activity were in Aqaba (Jordan) and Bahrain, with some practical phases at sea.

The exercise started with senior naval staff academic discussions and brainstorming covering the naval planning process, maritime operations center procedures, and disaster response coordination.

The exercise then moved on to a Command Post Exercise over a distributed network, involving both naval command headquarters but also civilian maritime coordination centers such as the Seychelles’ Regional Coordination Operations Centre and Oman’s Maritime Security Centre. Scenarios were played out covering the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and the Gulf of Aden and Oman. The exercise was directed by Commodore Rashid Mahmood Sheikh from Pakistan, who in a press release reported that international participation had brought different perspectives on how to deal with similar incidents at sea.

 

Divers leap from a Sea Dragon helicopter for floating mine response operations during International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025

 

An operational phase at sea or afloat focused on mine and countermeasures; visit, board, search and seizure procedures; unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration; explosive ordnance disposal; vessel and harbor defense; search and rescue; and the coordination of responses to mass casualty events.

NAVCENT reported that more than 5,000 personnel from more than 35 nations and international organizations had taken part in the different phases of the exercise. However, NAVCENT did not publish a list of participating countries, leaving your correspondent to identify participants from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Yemen and the UK. Potentially present but not spotted were any sailors from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, whose participation at this time would be of particular political interest. The UAE withdrew its operational participation in NAVCENT-led Combined Maritime Force operations in March 2023, citing its failure to prevent Iranian ship hijackings. But in early February, the Emiratis hosted three ships from the IRGC Navy and the Sina Class fast attack craft IRINS Zereh (P235) on a port visit to Sharjah, suggesting some sort of realignment of interests. 

 

Poseidon aircraft conducts a low elevation flight over participating ships in the Gulf of Oman 

 

In coordination with IMX 2025, US Africa Command has been simultaneously holding Exercise Cutlass Express. Cutlass Express has had the same phases as IMX 2025 – academic, Command Post Exercise, and practical training – but covers participating nations from the East African coast and the Western Indian Ocean. This year’s participants are Belgium, Comoros, Djibouti, France, Georgia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Tunisia, and the UK. The exercise is directed from the Naples headquarters of the US 6th Fleet. The geographical focus of this year’s exercise was Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tanzania, and involved nine maritime operation centers located throughout the region.