VIGIL CONSILIUMSearch
Context. Not headlines.
Conflict coverage · Iran–Gulf

International Maritime Security Construct

Force Atlas

International Maritime Security Construct

EXTERNAL

External powersActive
Assessed as of
2026-09
Reviewed
2026-09-09
Confidence
moderate
  • 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 Hormuz-specific coalition — formed in July 2019 after the tanker attacks of that summer, headquartered in Bahrain, with an operational arm called Coalition Task Force Sentinel and a remit that, unlike the wider maritime coalition's, names the strait and the threat to merchant shipping directly.

Scope
Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
Subordination
Subordination confirmed
Sources
3 on the record
Record state
Partial

Broad area of activity

The Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb and the southern Red Sea

Notable history

The construct was formed in July 2019, in response to the attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman that summer, and its operational arm — Coalition Task Force Sentinel — followed four months later. It exists because the wider Combined Maritime Forces could not: that coalition's mandate is against non-state illicit activity, and the 2019 attacks were something else. A dozen states belong, among them the United States, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Jordan and a group of European members, and the construct's stated purpose is to watch and reassure rather than to fight. In 2026, with the strait declared closed and war-risk cover withdrawn, its water became the war's; what the construct itself did is not established in anything this module has read, and its self-description is a participant's account.

Strengths

The one coalition body whose founding purpose is the strait, with Gulf members who stayed when they left other structures.

Limitations

A surveillance-and-reassurance construct with a small membership, whose relationship to the American war on the same water is institutional rather than physical and is frequently blurred in reporting. No vessels, contributions or operations are recorded.

Related organisations

  • Combined Maritime Forces Institutionally linked to · as of 2026-09 · high confidence

    Separate constructs sharing a headquarters at Manama and a membership that overlaps without coinciding. The construct's founding Gulf members — Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates — remain members even where their participation in the wider coalition's task forces has lapsed.

Lineage & institutional history

Formed 2019-07

Related locations

Manama: Headquarters. Structural association only. Strait of Hormuz: The water the construct was created for; no operation, position or pattern is described.

Assessed as of2026-09Last reviewed2026-09-09

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Related structure

1 record that this organisation names, or that name it. Every one is an explicit reference in a published record — nothing here is inferred from subject matter.

Commanded or sponsored by

Actor records that name this organisation.