The massive Navy and Marine Corps exercises that got underway this week involve confronting challenges that could be encountered in the Strait of Hormuz, but are not specifically designed to deal with Iran, senior officers said recently.
The commander of U.S. Fleet Forces, Adm. John Harvey, told reporters Exercise Bold Alligator will entail “just about everything … that could come to us in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Exercise Bold Alligator, which began in earnest along southeastern seaboard, is intended to engage in minesweeping and countering shore-based cruise missiles, large numbers of small boats and irregular warfare, Harvey said at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group.
The Strait of Hormuz has been a source of tension in recent weeks, with Iran threatening to act if a U.S. carrier battle group attempted to pass through the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. The country has in the past used small boats to harass the U.S. naval forces in the area.
Iran eventually backed off the threat and the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) aircraft carrier passed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident last month.
Bold Alligator is the largest amphibious assault exercise to take place in the East Cost in more than two years. It’s geared toward reinvigorating amphibious operations after a decade of ground wars and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The exercise off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina consists of 31 ships, more than 150 aircraft and 16,000 sailors and Marines, Harvey said. It is scheduled to run through Feb. 12.