USS
Mahan (DDG 72) (AFP Photo - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Perairan
bermasalah: Tentera Laut garis pantai Syria . . .
MaliaJYy - Potensi serangan Amerika Syarikat terhadap Syria
sebagai tindak balas kepada 21 Ogos serangan senjata kimia di pinggir bandar
Damsyik mendapat bahangnya pada Rabu, apabila satu resolusi menyokong
penggunaan kekerasan terhadap kerajaan Presiden Bashar Assad, dibersihkan Senat
Jawatankuasa Hubungan Luar Negeri pada 10-7 yang mengundi.
Presiden Obama telah memutuskan
untuk menangguhkan tindakan ketenteraan sehingga sekurang-kurangnya 9 September
apabila Rumah Amerika Syarikat seolah-olah keras kepala Rakyat berkumpul semula
untuk mengundi bagi mengukur.
Berikutan 21 Ogos serangan Ghouta,
yang mengorbankan mana-mana antara 355 ke 1,729 orang, perebutan diplomatik
untuk melancarkan atau menghindari serangan tentera di Syria telah dicerminkan
oleh pergerakan tentera laut di Mediterranean Timur, di luar pantai Syria.
Pelaksanaan Amerika Syarikat
dan bersekutu tentera laut kapal perang di rantau ini telah dipadankan dengan
penggunaan kapal perang tentera laut Rusia di rantau ini.
Walaupun kapal-kapal Barat
dalam banyak kes telah dikerahkan sekiranya serangan tentera terhadap Syria
mendapat lampu hijau, Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin telah berkata kehadiran
tentera laut Rusia yang diperlukan untuk melindungi kepentingan keselamatan
negara dan bukan ancaman kepada mana-mana negara.
Berikut adalah ringkasan
perkakasan tentera laut kini mengumpulkan ke pantai Syria .
Amerika
Syarikat
Tentera Laut Amerika Syarikat
mempunyai 5 buah Arleigh Burke kelas peluru berpandu pemusnah di luar pantai
Syria, yang mana laksamana tertinggi mengatakan adalah “bersedia sepenuhnya”
terhadap pelbagai tindakan yang mungkin .
USS Ramage, USS Mahan, USS
serius dan USS Barry masing-masing bersenjata dengan berpuluh-puluh peluru
berpandu Tomahawk, yang mempunyai pelbagai kira-kira 1,000 batu nautika (1,151
batu) dan digunakan untuk sasaran yang tepat.
Kapal-kapal juga dilengkapi dengan
peluru berpandu permukaan-ke-udara mampu mempertahankan kapal daripada serangan
udara.
Pada 29 Ogos, USS Stout telah
dihantar untuk melegakan USS Mahan, tetapi seorang pegawai pertahanan
memberitahu AFP bahawa kedua-dua kapal mungkin kekal di kawasan itu pada masa ini.
Adm Jonathan Greenert, ketua
operasi tentera laut, kepada ‘Audience di American Enterprise Institute pada
hari Khamis bahawa kapal-kapal Amerika Syarikat bersedia untuk apa yang
dipanggil “spektrum luas operasi,” termasuk melancarkan peluru berpandu
Tomahawk pada sasaran di Syria, sebagaimana yang telah dilakukan di Libya pada
2011, dan melindungi diri mereka sendiri sekiranya berlaku tindakan balas,
laporan AP.
Di samping itu pemusnah,
Amerika Syarikat mungkin mempunyai salah satu daripada 4 buah kapal selam
peluru berpandu di luar pantai Syria. Pada satu masa ini kapal selam yang
dilengkapi dengan peluru berpandu balistik nuklear disebut-sebut. Kini, mereka
mampu membawa sehingga 154 Tomahawk pelayaran peluru berpandu.
Ia juga mengumumkan pada Isnin
bahawa Amerika Syarikat telah dikerahkan San Antonio USS, kapal pengangkutan
amfibia, ke Mediterranean Timur.
USS San Antonio, dengan
beberapa helikopter dan beratus-ratus Marin di atas kapal, adalah “di stesen di
Mediterranean Timur” tetapi “telah menerima tiada tugas yang tertentu,” kata
seorang pegawai pertahanan memberitahu AFP dengan syarat tidak mahu namanya
disiarkan.
Pelaksanaan USS Antonio datang
walaupun janji-janji dari Presiden Obama bahawa tiada pendaratan amfibia adalah
dalam agenda, seperti Amerika Syarikat kononnya telah menolak mana-mana “kasut
di atas darat.”
Walaupun kata-kata draf
resolusi yang ditetapkan untuk dibentangkan di Dewan tidak membenarkan
pencerobohan darat, kata-kata teks berpotensi membenarkan tentera untuk
menjalankan operasi bukan serangan dalam Syria, termasuk mendapatkan stok
simpanan senjata kimia dan kemudahan pengeluaran.
Pada hari Isnin, ia juga
mengumumkan pembawa USS Nimitz super telah berpindah ke Laut Merah, walaupun ia
tidak diberikan perintah untuk menjadi sebahagian daripada perancangan untuk
menyerang tentera Amerika Syarikat terhad di Syria, pegawai-pegawai Amerika
Syarikat memberitahu ABC News.
Kapal-kapal lain dalam kumpulan
serangan adalah cruiser USS Princeton dan pemusnah USS William P. Lawrence, USS
Stockdale dan USS Shoup.
Pegawai itu berkata kumpulan pengangkut
serangan tidak diberikan misi, tetapi telah dipindahkan sekiranya sumber-sumber
yang diperlukan untuk “memaksimumkan pilihan yang ada.”
USS Harry S. Truman pesawat
pengangkut dan kumpulan serangan juga di Laut Arab utara.
Rusia
Rusia, sekutu lama Syria dan
pembekal senjata utama, mempunyai pangkalan tentera laut hanya di luar negara
yang terletak di pelabuhan Tartus Syria, yang telah dilaporkan telah digunakan
untuk menyokong bilangan Rusia yang semakin meningkat rondaan tentera laut di
Mediterranean. Walau bagaimanapun, Rusia menegaskan usaha-usaha baru-baru ini
untuk meningkatkan kehadiran tentera laut di rantau ini tidak berada dalam
tindak balas kepada ancaman serangan tentera Barat.
Pergerakan yang dilaporkan,
banyak kapal Rusia di rantau ini yang datang daripada sumber-sumber kementerian
pertahanan Rusia tanpa nama dan tidak disahkan. RT dihubungi Tentera Laut Rusia
meminta pengesahan pergerakan kapal dilaporkan, adalah akan datang walaupun
tiada komen.
Pada hari Jumaat, sebagai
contoh, kapal pendaratan besar, Nikolai Filchenkov, dilaporkan dihantar dari
bandar pelabuhan Ukraine Sevastopol untuk pelabuhan Laut Hitam Novorossiisk Rusia,
dari mana ia akhirnya dijangka mencapai pantai Syria, sumber yang memberitahu
Interfax News agensi.
“Kapal ini akan membuat
panggilan di Novorossiisk , di mana ia akan mengambil di atas kapal kargo khas
dan berangkat ke kawasan yang ditetapkan tugas pertempuran di Mediterranean
timur,” kata sumber itu.
Agensi berita RIA memetik
sumber yang tidak dinamakan pelaut senior sebagai berkata pada Jumaat bahawa
kapal frigat, Smetlivy , akan meninggalkan untuk Mediterranean pada September 12-14,
dan Shtil korvet dan Ivanovets bot peluru berpandu akan mendekati Syria pada
akhir bulan ini.
Nastoichivy pemusnah Rusia,
yang merupakan armada perdana Baltik, juga dijangka menyertai kumpulan itu di
rantau ini.
Timbalan Menteri Pertahanan Anatoly
Antonov, yang tidak dapat mengulas laporan tertentu, berkata pada hari Khamis
tentera laut Russia kini mempunyai “kumpulan cukup kuat” di sana.
“Tentera laut Rusia tidak
berniat untuk mengambil bahagian secara langsung atau tidak langsung dalam konflik
serantau mungkin,” katanya kepada 24 penyiar negeri Rossiya.
“Kapal tentera laut kami adalah
jaminan kestabilan, jaminan keamanan, usaha untuk menahan kuasa-kuasa lain
bersedia untuk memulakan tindakan ketenteraan di rantau ini.”
Juga dilaporkan di tempat di
Mediterranean timur adalah Neustrashimy frigat, serta kapal-kapal pendaratan
Alexander Shabalin, Admiral Nevelsky dan Peresvet.
Mereka dijangka akan disertai
oleh peluru berpandu Moskva cruiser.
Moskva, ditetapkan ketibaannya masa
seminggu lebih, akan mengambil alih operasi dari unit tentera laut di rantau
ini.
“Rancangan unit tentera di
bawah pimpinan Laksamana Valery Kulikov terpaksa ditukar sedikit. Daripada
melawat pelabuhan Cape Verde, cruiser Moskva menuju ke Selat Gibraltar. Kira-kira
dalam sepuluh hari, ia akan memasuki Mediterranean timur, di mana ia akan
menggantikan Laksamana pemusnah Panteleyev sebagai simpang perdana Koperasi
Tentera Laut Rusia, “kata satu sumber kepada Interfax pada Rabu.
Panteleyev kebetulan, hanya
tiba di timur Laut Mediterranean pada Rabu selepas meninggalkan bandar Far-
Eastern pelabuhan Vladivostok pada 19 Mac untuk menyertai kedudukan tentera
laut Rusia sebagai perdana.
SSV -201 kapal peninjau,
Priazovye, juga dilaporkan dalam perjalanan untuk menyertai kumpulan di Timur
Mediterranean ini. Diiringi oleh 2 buah kapal pendaratan, Minsk dan
Novocherkassk, kapal perisikan yang diluluskan melalui ‘Selat Istanbul’ pada hari Khamis, yang membantu membentuk
sempadan di antara Eropah dan Asia.
Perancis
Pada 31 Ogos, pegawai-pegawai
tentera Perancis mengesahkan frigat Chevalier Paul, yang pakar dalam keupayaan
anti-peluru berpandu, dan kapal pengangkutan, Dixmude , adalah di
Mediterranean. Pegawai Perancis menafikan mereka di rantau ini untuk mengambil
bahagian dalam tindakan ketenteraan terhadap Syria, tetapi bukan mengambil
bahagian dalam latihan dan operasi persediaan.
Walaupun kehadiran mereka di
rantau ini, Perancis kini tidak mempunyai peluru berpandu kapal berasaskan,
jadi apa-apa tindakan serangan akan datang dari udara dalam bentuk peluru
berpandu kepala jarak jauh, sama dengan negara yang digunakan di Kosovo pada
tahun 1999 dan di Libya pada tahun 2011, Time laporan.
Italy
2 buah kapal perang Itali
belayar Lebanon pada Rabu dalam usaha untuk melindungi 1,100 tentera Itali
dalam Pasukan Interim Pertubuhan Bangsa Bersatu di Lubnan, jiran tenggara Syria,
Agence France Presse melaporkan.
Agensi berita ANSA Itali melaporkan
bahawa sebuah kapal frigat dan bot pemusnah torpedo berlepas dari pantai
tenggara Itali pada hari Rabu dan akan memberikan perlindungan tambahan kepada
tentera sekiranya konflik Syria terus merosot.
UK
Sehingga 29 Ogos Response Force
Kumpulan Petugas Tentera Laut Diraja telah dikerahkan di Mediterranean sebagai
sebahagian daripada langkah jangka yang dirancang Cougar 13. Daya termasuk
helikopter pengangkut cemerlang HMS, jenis -23 frigat HMS Westminster dan HMS
Montrose, kapal perang amfibia HMS benteng dan 6 Royal Armada kapal Bantuan.
kapal selam nuklear kelas Trafalgar
HMS gigih juga dipercayai berada di kawasan itu pada masa ini, selepas ia
dikesan di Gibraltar.
Pada hari yang sama bahawa
media British mula touting “senjata kekuatan tentera” di Britain yang akan
disediakan sekiranya campur tangan, Perdana Menteri Britain, David Cameron
hilang undi menyokong tindakan ketenteraan terhadap Syria sebanyak 13 undi.
Memandangkan kekalahan parlimen mengejutkan, Setiausaha Luar, William Hague
berkata UK hanya akan mampu untuk menawarkan Amerika Syarikat “sokongan
diplomatik.”
Canselor Konservatif di UK,
George Osborne, mengesahkan bahawa UK tidak akan mendapatkan undi lanjut
mengenai tindakan di Syria.
Troubled
waters: Naval forces line Syrian shores . . .
Mounting
pressure for a Western strike on Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and
hostile to Damascus build up off the embattled country’s coastline.. The potential of a US strike
against Syria in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus
suburb gained steam on Wednesday, when a resolution backing the use of force
against President Bashar Assad's government cleared the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote.
President Obama has decided to
put off military action until at least September 9, when the seemingly
recalcitrant US House of Representatives reconvenes to vote on the measure.
Following the August 21 Ghouta
Attack, which killed anywhere between 355 to 1,729 people, the diplomatic
scramble to launch or stave off a military strike on Syria was mirrored by the
movement of naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Syria.
The deployment of US and allied
naval warships in the region has been matched by the deployment of Russian
naval warships in the region.
While the Western vessels have
in many cases been deployed in the event a military strike against Syria gets a
green light, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s naval presence
is needed to protect national security interests and is not a threat to any
nation.
Below is a brief summary of the
naval hardware currently amassed off Syria’s shores.
USA
The US Navy has five Arleigh
Burke-class guided missile destroyers off the coast of Syria, which its top
admiral says is “fully ready” for a wide range of possible actions.
The USS Ramage, USS Mahan, USS
Gravely and USS Barry are each armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles,
which have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles (1,151 miles) and are used for
precise targeting.
The ships are also equipped
with surface-to-air missiles capable of defending the vessels from air attacks.
On August 29, the USS Stout was
sent to relieve the USS Mahan, but a defense official told AFP that both ships
might remain in the area for the time being.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the
chief of naval operations, told an audience at the American Enterprise
Institute on Thursday that the US ships are prepared for what he called a
"vast spectrum of operations," including launching Tomahawk cruise
missiles at targets in Syria, as was done in Libya in 2011, and protecting themselves
in the event of retaliation, AP reports.
In addition to the destroyers,
the United States may well have one of its four guided missile submarines off
the coast of Syria. At one time these subs were equipped with nuclear-tipped
ballistic missiles. Nowadays, they are capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk
cruise missiles.
It was also announced on Monday
that the US had deployed the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship, to
the Eastern Mediterranean.
The USS San Antonio, with
several helicopters and hundreds of Marines on board, is “on station in the
Eastern Mediterranean” but “has received no specific tasking,” a defense
official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The deployment of the USS
Antonio comes despite promises from President Obama that no amphibious landing
is on the agenda, as the US has ostensibly ruled out any “boots on the ground.”
While the wording of the draft
resolution set to be put before the House does not permit a ground invasion,
the wording of the text could potentially allow troops to carry out
non-offensive operations within Syria, including securing chemical weapons
stockpiles and production facilities.
On Monday, it was also
announced the USS Nimitz super carrier had moved into the Red Sea, though it
had not been given orders to be part of the planning for a limited US military
strike on Syria, US officials told ABC News.
The other ships in the strike
group are the cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS William P. Lawrence,
USS Stockdale and USS Shoup.
The official said the carrier
strike group has not been assigned a mission, but was shifted in the event its
resources are needed to “maximize available options.”
The USS Harry S. Truman
aircraft carrier and strike group is also in the northern Arabian Sea.
Russia
Russia, Syria’s longtime ally
and primary arms supplier, has its only overseas naval base located in the
Syrian port of Tartus, which has reportedly been used to support Russia’s
growing number of naval patrols on the Mediterranean. However, Russia insists
recent efforts to bolster its naval presence in the region are not in response
to Western threats of a military strike.
Reported movements of many
Russian ships in the region are coming from anonymous Russian defense ministry
sources and have not been confirmed. RT contacted the Russian Navy to ask for
confirmation of the reported ship movements, though no comment was forthcoming.
On Friday, for example, the
large landing ship, Nikolai Filchenkov, was reportedly dispatched from the
Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea port of
Novorossiisk, from where it is eventually expected to reach the Syrian coast, a
source told Interfax News Agency.
"The ship will make call
in Novorossiisk, where it will take on board special cargo and set off for the
designated area of its combat duty in the eastern Mediterranean," the
source said.
RIA news agency quoted an
unnamed senior naval source as saying on Friday that the frigate, Smetlivy,
would leave for the Mediterranean on September 12-14, and the corvette Shtil
and missile boat Ivanovets would approach Syria at the end of the month.
The Russian destroyer
Nastoichivy, which is the flagship of the Baltic fleet, is also expected to
join the group in the region.
Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly
Antonov, who was unable to comment on specific reports, said on Thursday the
Russian navy currently had a "pretty strong group" there.
"The Russian navy does not
intend to take part directly or indirectly in a possible regional
conflict," he told the state Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
"Our navy vessels are a
guarantee of stability, guarantee of peace, an attempt to hold back other
forces ready to start military action in the region."
Also reportedly in place in the
eastern Mediterranean are the frigate Neustrashimy, as well as the landing
ships Alexander Shabalin, the Admiral Nevelsky and the Peresvet.
They are expected to be joined
by the guided-missile cruiser Moskva.
The Moskva, set to arrive in a
little over a week’s time, will take over operations from a naval unit in the
region.
"The plans of the naval
unit under the command of Rear Admiral Valery Kulikov had to be changed a
little. Instead of visiting a Cape Verde port, the cruiser Moskva is heading to
the Strait of Gibraltar. In about ten days, it will enter the eastern
Mediterranean, where it will replace the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev as the
flagship of the operative junction of the Russian Navy," a source told
Interfax on Wednesday.
Panteleyev incidentally, only
arrived in the east Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday after leaving the
Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok on March 19 to join the Russian standing
naval force as its flagship.
The SSV-201 reconnaissance
ship, Priazovye, is also reportedly on its way to join the group in the Eastern
Mediterranean. Accompanied by the two landing ships, Minsk and Novocherkassk,
the intelligence ship passed through the ‘Istanbul Strait’ on Thursday, which
helps form the boundary between Europe and Asia.
FRANCE
On August 31, French military
officials confirmed the frigate Chevalier Paul, which specializes in
anti-missile capabilities, and the transport ship, Dixmude, were in the
Mediterranean. French officials denied they are in the region to participate in
military action against Syria, but were rather taking part in training and
operation preparations.
Despite their presence in the
region, France currently has no ship-based missiles, so any offensive action
would come from the air in the form of long-range Scalp missiles, similar to
those the nation used in Kosovo in 1999 and in Libya in 2011, Time reports.
Italy
Two Italian warships set sail
for Lebanon on Wednesday in a bid to protect 1,100 Italian soldiers in the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Syria’s southeastern neighbor, Agence
France Presse reported.
The Italian ANSA news agency
reported that a frigate and a torpedo destroyer boat departed from Italy's
southeastern coast on Wednesday and would provide additional protection to the
soldiers in the event the Syrian conflict further deteriorates.
UK
As of August 29, the Royal
Navy's Response Force Task Group was deployed in the Mediterranean as part of
long-planned exercise Cougar 13. The force includes helicopter carrier HMS
Illustrious, type-23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Montrose, amphibious
warship HMS Bulwark and six Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships.
The Trafalgar-class nuclear
submarine HMS Tireless was also believed to be in the area at the time, after
it was detected in Gibraltar.
On the same day that British
media started touting Britain’s “arsenal of military might” which would be
available in the event of intervention, British Prime Minister David Cameron
lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes. In light of
the shocking parliamentary defeat, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK
would only be able to offer the US “diplomatic support.”
The UK’s Conservative
Chancellor, George Osborne, confirmed that the UK would not seek a further vote
on action in Syria.