At this year’s iteration of the biennial Exercise Rim of the Pacific—the world’s largest naval exercise—port security is playing a prominent role as international conflict and competition put strains on global supply chains.
At Coast Guard Base Honolulu on Sand Island on Monday, the Long Beach, Calif.-based Port Security Unit 311 began setting up its operating base for the exercise. The unit, part of the Coast Guard’s Deployable Specialized Forces, has deployed across the globe. It’s one of the few Coast Guard units to have seen action in conflicts in the Middle East. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it joined an amphibious force of British Royal Marines and U.S. Navy SEALs and took control of critical port facilities.
But this is the first RIMPAC the unit has ever participated in. Its participation comes as the U.S. government sees the Indo-Pacific increasingly critical as East and South Asian countries play a growing central role in the global economy and as Washington and Beijing compete for influence and power in the region.
“Securing our ports is essential across the globe. Our ports and waterways are still fundamentally how we move commerce, how we receive goods, how we we transit goods or people, ” said PSU 311’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Pat Hanley. “And for many of the countries around the globe, particularly in the Indo-Pacific area, the ports are critical strategic assets. That’s their…
