Boarding parties

8. Middle East area of operations - Tyrants and pirates

Maritime Tasks

Australia is the world’s largest island.

With a coastline of more than 59,000 kilometres; an exclusive economic zone of 8.2 million square kilometres; search and rescue responsibility for ten per cent of the Earth’s surface; and dependence on trade, travel and information crossing the waters that surround Australia, our relationship with the sea is critical. Security, trade, industry, employment, economy, environment and recreation are all dependent upon how we use and protect the sea.

In war, the navy is tasked with defeating enemy impediments and threats to seafaring. In peace, the navy secures the sea and ensures that its resources are available, enabling the flow of trade and information. Almost 90 per cent of all goods travelling to and from Australia move via sea; 99 per cent of internet data transmitted to and from Australia does so via undersea cables.

Naval forces have been deployed from Australia since the mid-1800s. From early operations of the Royal Navy, to the emergence of colonial navies, through the creation of the Commonwealth Naval Forces in 1901 and the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, continuing to the duties carried out by the Royal Australian Navy in the 21st century, the essence of what the navy does remains the same.

Commander Andy Schroder, Navy fellow at the Australian War Memorial, gives an explanation of what the Navy does using Booth’s Span of Maritime Tasks, or Booth’s Triangle. With each side of the triangle representing one of the three primary tasks undertaken by the Navy; Constabulary, Diplomatic or Military.

In Navies and Foreign Policy, Ken Booth viewed navies as engaged in a “trinity” of roles (often depicted as a triangle). Seafaring nations, such as Australia, use the oceans to move goods and people, project power for diplomatic or military purposes, and extract natural resources. To ensure that the seas can be used in this way, navies act in Military, Diplomatic, and Constabulary roles.

The military role is perhaps the most obvious, involving the projection of power and sustain naval balance, most obviously during wartime combat.

The constabulary role, as the name suggests, involves enforcing national laws, almost as a seaward extension of the police services that keep order on land.

The diplomatic role is about communicating, shaping relations with allies, gaining or increasing access to new countries, building up foreign navies to promote one’s own purposes, demonstrating naval power, and building prestige.

Throughout this exhibition, icons will appear to remind you of how different events and actions relate to these three roles.

At any one time, naval forces and operations are focused on one of these tasks, while maintaining the agility to shift between different roles rapidly and effectively. The stories presented here are moments in the naval history of Australia. Through them all, despite over 200 years of technological developments, geopolitical shifts, and changing ideas of what it means to be Australian, the role played by the Australian navy has remained consistent.

On 21 March 2003, the day after hostilities began in the Second Gulf War, a boarding party from HMAS Kanimbla (II) boarded the Iraqi tugs Al-Rayiah and Jamhoria. It was discovered that they were minelayers in disguise. Al-Rayiah was carrying 18 mines hidden in empty 200-litre drums, lined up on rows to simulate cargo on the quarterdeck. The large oil barge being towed by Jamhoria concealed 48 LUGM and 20 Manta influence mines in a hold below deck. They were deployable from a rail system through a disguised hatch in the stern.

The elaborate methods used by the Iraqis to disguise the minelaying activities of these ships was a result of the coalition Maritime Interception Force presence in Iraqi waters since 2002. Chief of the Defence Force General Peter Cosgrove remarked, “This is a significant coup … if those mines, which were being smuggled out of the waterway, had been brought into the Gulf and released there … there would have been mayhem.”

No resistance to Kanimbla’s boarding party was offered. Significant caches of weapons and ammunition were also taken from the disguised minelayers, and 34 Iraqis were taken prisoner and later handed to US forces. The discovery and neutralisation of this threat, and others in the Khawr Abd Allah waterway, ensured effective coalition control of the seas around Iraq.

Images courtesy of Royal Australian Navy, Sea Power Centre - Australia.

LUGM145 Buoyant contact sea mine (Iraqi forces)

This Iraqi LUGM 145 mine was recovered by boarding parties from HMAS Kanimbla (II) four days into the Second Gulf War as part of Operation Falconer.

Three Iraqi tugs were intercepted and detained by American forces in the vicinity of the Kha Ab Allah waterway in the northern Arabian Gulf on 20 March 2003. The next day, the tugs Al Rayiah and Jamhoria were boarded by a boarding party from HMAS Kanimbla and found to have a clandestine mining capability. Al Rayiah was found to have 18 mines concealed in dummy empty 200 litre (44-gallon) drums, lined in rows simulating cargo on the quarterdeck. Jamhoria was towing a large oil barge which concealed 48 LUGM and 20 Manta mines hidden in a hold below deck, deployable from a rail system through a disguised hatch in the stern. Should these mines have been successfully deployed the waterway would have been closed until mine clearance operations could provide a high probability of safe passage for friendly shipping. Such closure would result in limiting logistic support to forces engaged in operations.

This conventional sea mine manufactured in Iraq is either moored on a chain or drifts on the surface, and is actuated by contact with a ship. Featuring three contact horns, it contained up to 200 kg of explosives. It comprises two prefabricated steel halves welded together along the longitudinal seam. Painted matt green with Arabic characters stencilled in white, this example is missing the filler plug for the explosive. The three Hertz horns on the top of the casing, spaced 780 mm apart, contained acid primers which would initiate the mine’s detonation when broken on contact with a ship.

Maker: State Arsenal, Iraq, c. 1990

AWM REL31392.001

Navy RHIB

A rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) used by the RAN in the Middle East Area of Operations for boarding operations during the Second Gulf War. RHIB No. 1791 entered service in 2002 and was maintained in Bahrain as the operational hot spare. So important was the role of the RHIB in keeping the Khawr Abd Allah waterway clear that in early March 2003 HMAS Kanimbla (II) embarked eight RHIBS and nearly 130 British and American boarding party and support element personnel. As the hot spare, RHIB No. 1791 was also used in HMAS Manoora in 2004 and 2005, and in HMAS Anzac through 2007. Following its decommissioning in the Middle East in 2020, the RHIB was sent to the Memorial’s collection from RAN storage in Bahrain.

This model was manufactured by Zodiac in 2002 and measures 7.24 m in length, with 2.74 m beam. Weighing 2,042 kg, it has a Volvo Penta AD41 200 hp engine producing a maximum speed of 26 knots. The surrounding inflatable pontoon of the boat (the collar) is manufactured from Hypalon fabric, and the RHIB is fitted with radar, GPS plotter, and VHF radio. A small calibre weapon can be fitted forward. There is one box seat and six crew positions in two groups of three forward of the centre console. A backrest seat and another seat box are behind the console for the coxswain. There are manufacturer markings and safety instructions on both collars. On a plate on the outside of the transom is the notice: “Manufactured by Zodiac Group Australia Pty Ltc, Constructed 2002 ZGALRSYD0205172 Safe Carrying Capacity (SCC) Rough Weather 9 Persons Calm weather 15 Emergency 25.”

Crew members in front of RHIB

Crew members of the rigid-hull inflatable boat in the background on the deck of HMAS Kanimbla in 2003. They are in the Khawr Abd Allah waterway.

Photographer: David Dare Parker c. 2003, AWM P04102.110

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