US warships docked in Crete amid Libyan tensions

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

US warships docked in Crete amid Libyan tensions
Mar 5, 2011, 11:06 GMT

Athens - Two US warships carrying 1,200 Marines were docked at the US military base on the southern Mediterranean island of Crete Saturday as the US increased its military presence in the region amid escalating tensions in Libya.

The amphibious assault ship with a fleet of helicopters, and the attack destroyer arrived at Souda Bay the previous day, carrying a total of around 4,000 personnel including the Marines.

The arrival of the vessels, the Kearsage and USS Ponce, coincided with a demonstration in the nearby city of Hania by about 100 supporters of Greece's Communist Party who are opposed to the presence of US forces.

Earlier in the week, around 400 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina arrived at the US military base on Crete.



Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1623852.php/US-warships-docked-in-Crete-amid-Libyan-tensions

[hack89]

1. Slight correction

Ponce is not an "attack destroyer" - it is an amphibious assault ship like the Kearsage.

[jakeXT]

2. Italy would be closer, but maybe they are afraid of being denied by the Italians

similar to 1986


If a no-fly zone over Libya is to be established, it looks as if it will have to be through another “coalition of the willing” rather than with the blessing of a UN Security Council resolution which would probably be opposed by both Russia and China. In the first instance, planes flying from an American carrier, probably the USS Enterprise, could establish the no-fly zone, but land bases, such as the well-positioned US Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily or a similar facility at Souda Bay in Crete, would soon be needed to sustain a long campaign. And while enforcement of a no-fly zone is not especially complicated once everything is in place, it does require both careful planning and adequate resources (a fleet of around a hundred fighter jets, aerial refuelling, airborne warning and control, robust data links between coalition aircraft, rescue arrangements for any pilots shot done).

http://www.economist.com/blogs/clausewitz/2011/03/libya