Navy creates a new command to centralize force protection.

The U.S. Navy has consolidated the management of all force-protection units deployed around the world into a single new organization.

The Maritime Force Protection Command was established in October to manage the training and equipping of the expeditionary units that the Navy deploys overseas to protect its assets, explained the head of the command, Capt. Mark E. Kosnik.

"This command includes four components--mobile security, naval coastal warfare, explosive ordnance disposal, and mobile diving and salvage forces," Kosnik told National Defense.

"Before the reorganization, those four existed as small, separate entities," he said. "Yet, they use much of the same equipment and training. Their missions are similar. This gives them a single point of oversight that never existed before."

The new command is located at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, in Norfolk, Va. The base's waterfront is lined with 30 mammoth amphibious assault ships and other Navy vessels. Any one of them would be an attractive target for a terrorist, Kosnik noted.

The command has a budget of about $50 million and approximately 7,000 sailors and officers. Of those, nearly 3,000 are reservists. Launching the command has been "a phased standup," Kosnik said. "I started with a staff of three. That number will grow to 68. By spring, we should be up to full speed."

The Navy began stepping up its force protection in 2000, after suicide bombers attacked one of its guided-missile destroyers, the USS Cole, in the port of Aden, Yemen. The assault killed 17 sailors and disabled the ship.

In response to that assault, the Navy created the mobile security force. Its primary mission, Kosnilk explained, is to provide light, mobile, in-port, short-term point defense for Navy ships, aircraft and other high-value assets in locations where U.S. shore infrastructure doesn't exist or is inadequate.

The force includes 11 detachments of 76 sailors equipped with three air-transportable, 25-foot high-speed pursuit boats. Eventually, the Navy intends to add another detachment.

Detachment members receive basic master-at-arms training and attend other Navy security, force protection and combat schools. They also are assigned to Marine Corps crew-served weapons courses. They are trained to fire the M9 9 mm pistol, M16A3 5.56 mm rifle, M870 12 gauge shotgun, M203 40 mm grenade launcher, M2 .50 caliber heavy-barrel machine gun, M240 7.62 mm light machine gun and MK-19 40 mm grenade machine gun. Many members have patrol-boat and aircraft-security training.

"The mobile security detachments are almost identical to the Coast Guard's maritime safety and security teams," Kosnik said. The MSSTs supply security for U.S. civilian ports and harbors.

While the Coast Guard focuses on U.S. shores, "we tend to look at Navy forces that are deployed," he said.

The first operational unit in the force--Detachment 21, which was commissioned in February 2003--returned in December 2004 from a six-month deployment in the Persian Gulf; where the unit provided security for two Iraqi oil terminals.

"Ninety percent of all Iraqi oil goes through those two platforms," said Lt. Brian Vandiver, the detachment's commander.

Detachment 21, based at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., was deployed to protect the terminals after they were attacked by several small boats in April 2004. The foray was unsuccessful, but two Americans--a sailor and a Coast Guardsman--died in the incident.

The command's naval coastal warfare force consists of eight Naval Reserve squadrons. They conduct surveillance patrols and protect harbors, anchorages and other militarily significant inshore areas throughout the world. The NCW squadrons include mobile inshore warfare units, with portable surveillance and communications equipment, and inshore boat units, with 27 and 34-foot, high-speed craft that are armed with M203 grenade launchers, M2 .50 caliber heavy barrel machine guns and M240 light machine guns.

Since the attack on the USS Cole, NCW forces have been deployed frequently throughout the Middle East to protect U.S. Navy ships, Kosnik said. Since 9/11, some reservists have been deployed twice.

To ease the pressure on the reservists, two of the NCW squadrons--25 percent of the total--are being converted to active-duty status, Kosnik said. "That will enable us to ease up on our reservists, but making the change is very challenging," he noted.

The problem is that the current reserve units are located all over the country, and the Navy wants to base the new active-duty squadrons near its big bases in Norfolk and San Diego. Any reservists who want to convert to active duty would be welcome, but they probably would have to move to one of those two cities.

Another issue is that many of the active-duty sailors who would be transferred into the new squadrons would have to be trained, Kosnik said. "There just aren't enough trained personnel for those specialties," he said.

That takes time, and so does providing facilities and equipment for the new units. Facilities are being built in Portsmouth and San Diego, Kosnik said. Buying new equipment for the squadrons will take 18 months to two years, he estimated.

The command has two explosive ordnance disposal groups. One is headquartered in Norfolk, and the other in San Diego, with a total of about 2,000 officers and sailors. Both groups include two kinds of mobile units, one specializes in explosive ordnance disposal and another focuses on diving and salvage.

The mobile diving and salvage units perform sea-based and expeditionary recovery operations, battle-damage assessments, towing, underwater repairs and harbor clearance.

Divers are trained at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla. Candidates must be no more than 30 years old, possess above-average physical strength, be strong swimmers and prove capable of performing involved mechanical tasks in closed spaces, often deep underwater. Students learn to apply mathematics, physics, medicine and basic gas laws as they relate to diving, recompression chambers and salvage operations.

The command's explosive ordnance disposal mobile units provide combat-ready personnel who are specially trained to remove or disarm bombs, artillery rounds, mines and grenades that threaten U.S. or allied troops, or civilians anywhere in the world. In Iraq, Navy EOD specialists have responded to about 2,000 reports of improvised explosive devices and disarmed 500 of them, said Cmdr. Timothy P. Rudderow, head of EODMU Two, at Little Creek.

EOD specialists frequently deploy with special operations forces, including Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs (sea, air and land teams) and Marine force reconnaissance units, explained Lt. Robert Toth, a training officer. They are qualified in both static and free-fall parachute jumps. They can operate closed and open-circuit diving rigs, as well as hard-hat, deepwater equipment.

EOD specialists take part in maritime-interdiction operations. They work with the Secret Service to help protect the president and other dignitaries. Some units even employ marine mammals--dolphins and seals--that are trained to help protect U.S. forces, ships and shore facilities.

The hardest part of the EOD mission today "is the shooting portion," Toth said. "In the past, we were a support unit, in the rear of the lines. But in the war on terror, we're right on the front lines with the Marines and Rangers."

As a result, "we've really had to ramp up to get our guys qualified," Toth said. Weapons include M-4 carbines, side arms and .50 caliber sniper rifles.

To keep in shape, EOD specialists maintain a strenuous regimen, Toth said. "We have physical training five days a week," he said. "More than a few of us also like to work out at lunchtime, and at the end of the day."

At least once a week, the unit runs several miles to the beach, swims two miles and then runs back.

"We love what we're doing," Toth said. "I've been in the Navy for 21 years, and I've only been in two wars--the first Gulf War and this one. With the war on, we know we're going to do what we've been trained to do, right out of the chute. It's pretty exciting."