The Saudi Royal Naval Forces took over the command of the Mixed Duty Force (150), for the second time, from its French counterpart, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The duty force steer anti-terrorism operations and maintain the security and safety of maritime navigation, over its tasks' zone, comprising the most crowded shipment routes, in the world, covering the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman, spreading over a size of about 3.2 million nautical miles.

Among the tasks of the force are fighting activities backing up drugs and weapons trafficking, guarantee the freedom of navigation and flow of the world trade.
The joint task force is a multi-national unit, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, US, France, Britain, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Canada, Australia, Italy, Denmark and Spain.

According to SPA, the leadership of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) received those tasks for the first time from the British Royal Navy on 11/27/1439 AH (09 August 2018). During that period, RSNF carried out a number of operations, the most important of which was the seizure of 10,500 kilograms of narcotic hashish, and the search of a large number of suspicious boats that smuggle drugs, weapons, coal and people.