- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The Combined Maritime Forces' Red Sea task force, created in 2022 — the coalition structure on the sea that carries Saudi Arabia's alternative to Hormuz, and the one whose water the Houthi blockade of July 2026 contested.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 2 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
Broad area of activity
The Red Sea from Suez to the Gulf of Aden
Notable history
Task Force 153 was stood up in April 2022 to give the coalition a dedicated Red Sea structure, and it was overtaken within two years by a threat its mandate did not contemplate: the Houthi campaign against shipping from late 2023, answered by a separate American-led operation and by the European Union's Aspides rather than by this task force, because a coalition mandated against non-state illicit activity is not a coalition mandated to fight a movement firing anti-ship missiles. The Houthi blockade of Saudi ports declared at Bab el-Mandeb in July 2026 contested the task force's water for the second time. That gap between the standing structure and the actual threat is the record's point.
Strengths
A standing coalition presence on the sea that has become the outlet of the Gulf's principal Hormuz alternative.
Limitations
A mandate that stops where the Red Sea's real problem begins, and a membership that has preferred other frameworks when the threat became a state-like actor. No vessels, contributions or operations are recorded.
Lineage & institutional history
Related locations
Bab el-Mandeb: The southern end of the task force's area; no operation is described.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of2026-09Last reviewed2026-09-09
See this force in the structure Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.