The Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) have taken over command of the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) for the third time from their Pakistani counterparts in a special ceremony held at the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base in Bahrain.

During the celebration, the RSNF Commodore Abdullah Al-Mutairi has officially taken over command of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) from Pakistan Navy Rear Admiral Zulfiqar Mohammad, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.

The CTF-150 was established in 2002 as one of four Task Force: Task Force (CTF-151), Task Force (CTF-152), in addition to the Task Force (CTF-153) announced in the final statement of Jeddah Security and Development Summit, in the presence of U.S. President Joe Biden, GCC leaders, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.

These four forces operate under the command of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This is the largest international maritime partnership in the world, and its tasks are to implement maritime security operations in large areas of operations estimated at about (200) million square meters as it includes the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea for the purpose of combating terrorism and the activities supporting it, such as human smuggling, drugs, weapons and coal and to help ensure freedom of international navigation, and the flow of international trade safely and securely in those areas that are the hub and the World Trade Center and the main “artery of the global economy”.

The RSNF Command had received these tasks for the first time from the British Royal Navy on July 30, 2018 and, during that period, it carried out a number of operations, while it received them for the second time from its French counterpart in August 2020.

The Combined Maritime Forces comprise 34 countries and are headquartered in Bahrain with the Central Command of the U.S. Naval Forces and the US Fifth Fleet.