Caspian Guard
Two strategic initiatives that EUCOM continues to develop and expand are Caspian Guard and the Gulf of Guinea Guard. These are two engagements that demonstrate a regional approach towards establishing stability and security in relatively remote areas within the theater susceptible to transnational threats.
An example of military, non-military, and private sector collaboration to reach common strategic goals is Caspian Guard, a regional multinational effort partnering U.S. and host nation military and nonmilitary agencies with private firms to help Caspian Sea littoral states establish an integrated airspace and maritime border control regime.
In the Caspian Basin, EUCOM has moved from concept development to full implementation of an initiative which established an integrated airspace, maritime and border control regime for the nations of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Sponsored by OSD, Caspian Guard addresses counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and illicit trafficking as well as defense of key economic zones such as Caspian Basin petroleum. The concept is to focus EUCOM regional security cooperation activities in partnership with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to assist the littoral states in integrating their airspace and maritime surveillance and control systems; their national command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence systems; and their reaction and response forces.
The development of oil and gas deposits in the Caspian region, particularly oil rich Western Kazakhstan, and the infrastructure to transport it to market, has been the focus for U.S. policy in Central Asia for over a decade. Before the United States intervention in Afghanistan, outside the oil industry or the small circle of academic and government specialists on the region, few in the United States knew where Central Asia was or had ever heard the name Kazakhstan. Even today, with Kazakhstan as a quiet sideshow to the events in Afghanistan, it is a relatively small group who understand Kazakhstan’s potential to shift the balance of power in world oil markets and lessen the strategic importance of the Middle East. With the addition of the recently confirmed reserves of the Kashagan field in the North Caspian, within twenty years Kazakhstan could potentially become the largest oilproducing nation outside the Middle East.
Given the explosive growth of oil infrastructure in Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea Region, the need to develop a comprehensive security system is becoming evident. There are those who are concerned that the sea is already becoming militarized and this in itself is a danger to regional stability. However, Iran and Russia already have significant maritime forces, including naval infantry. Caspian security cannot be based on the hope that the neighborhood will continue to be politically stable or the neighbors benevolent. Terrorists have proven that they can strike in distant locations against soft targets.
Given that the largest concentration of U.S. commercial investment in the former Soviet Union is in oil production facilities in western Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan’s ability to deter or respond to a terrorist attack should be an issue of U.S. concern. Also, the Caspian Sea presents a significant challenge to U.S. efforts to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction since it is a direct and lightly monitored transport route to Iran and the Caucasus.
The first attempt to form a comprehensive concept to improve Caspian security was in the fiscal years 2004-2009 security assistance budget submission in June 2001 which included a multi-year request to develop a Caspian Region rapid reaction capability and a maritime training center. Based on discussions with the Coast Guard International Training Department, the US also began planning for a Coast Guard survey to review the overall maritime security situation to better understand what our priorities should be.
The Exercise Related Construction (ERC) program is a valuable tool and one of the more important aspects of EUCOM's Theater Security Cooperation program. The ERC program is a powerful catalyst that effectively leverages austere minor military construction funding targeted at particular countries or regions that complements EUCOM's overall theater strategy.
Caspian Guard, launched in the fall of 2003, will include a radar-equipped command center in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Wall Street Journal on 11 April 2005 reported that the US planned to spend $100 million on Caspian Guard to respond to crisis situations in the Caspian Sea region.
On 20 September 2003, the former U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Point Brower was officially turned over to Azerbaijan. The Point Brower-now renamed S-201-is the third patrol boat of its type that the U.S. government has given Azerbaijan. Two smaller U.S. Coast Guard cutters were given to Azerbaijan in 2000. The transfer of this cutter represents over $2.5 million in U.S. government assistance to Azerbaijan, including the preparation and transportation costs and the value of the ship itself.
The ship's long journey began in San Francisco, California and continued as the Maritime Brigade crew piloted the vessel across the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, through the Volga Don canal to the Caspian Sea, and finally to Baku.
The 27-meter patrol boat Point Brower was commissioned in 1970 and stationed in San Diego, California. Its primary missions were law enforcement and search and rescue. The cutter has been refurbished and retrofitted several times, most recently in preparation for its transfer to Azerbaijan.
Iran has shown interest in forming a "rapid reaction force" with Russia in the Caspian.
