US Fifth Fleet commander visits Israel as Washington and Jerusalem deepen naval cooperation

The commander of the US Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Curt A. Renshaw, concluded a visit to Israel on Friday, November 13, as a guest of the commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Admiral Eyal Harel. The Israeli army announced the visit and presented it as a step to strengthen naval cooperation between Israel and the United States. The American officer met Harel and the senior command of the Israeli Navy. The Fifth Fleet belongs to US Central Command (CENTCOM) and is headquartered in Bahrain.

On the agenda of the two commanders, as the Israeli army described it, were the Israeli Navy’s role in operations on the various fronts and stronger cooperation to maintain regional stability. They also discussed the security of sea lanes, mutual coordination between the two navies and the exchange of technological know-how. The Israeli army released photographs of the visit, including one of Renshaw with Israeli officers aboard a vessel.

The visit took place in a period of high tension with Iran, with the weight at sea. The Fifth Fleet, which covers the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, has been involved in recent months in clashes with Iran and enforces the American naval blockade of Iranian ports. On the same Friday morning, the Revolutionary Guards claimed to have destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain, a claim confirmed neither by Washington nor by Manama. In the same period the US destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) returned to Pearl Harbor after 12 transits of the Strait of Hormuz under threat.

Jerusalem Post military correspondent Amir Bohbot assesses that the visit lets the American commander harmonise a broader intelligence picture. According to the paper, the Israeli Navy has helped the US military build the intelligence picture for the Strait of Hormuz, with target identification and data collection for strikes. The paper notes that the US seeks freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal, passages of direct interest to Israel as well, with presence and deterrence against Iran and the Houthis. Foreign reports have the Israeli Navy operating in the Bab el-Mandeb and Suez areas too.

The same paper points out that the Israeli Navy brings to the cooperation experience in shooting down unmanned aircraft and missiles and in protecting fixed installations at sea. Over the past year Israeli naval forces have held several exercises with the Fifth Fleet, with scenarios of naval warfare, boarding operations and search and rescue on the high seas. The cooperation, according to the report, also includes tightening the blockade of Iran as part of US sanctions.