Oman has become new centre of land warfare training for allied militaries

Oman is evolving as a land warfare training hub, with its complex and rugged terrain serving as a proving ground for the militaries of the sultanate and its allies, notably the United Kingdom and the United States, military officials said.

During bilateral and multilateral training conducted in the desert, mountains and dry riverbeds, ground forces have simulated combat in challenging conditions, ensuring they are ready to respond to a range of security threats.

Oman and the United Kingdom have had close ties for more than five decades, with the two countries signing a new Joint Defence Agreement in February 2019.

Oman also has been a strategic partner of the United States since 1980, when it became the first Gulf state to sign a formal accord permitting the US military to use its facilities, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

The agreement, revised in 2010, allows the United States access to Oman's military airfields in Muscat, Thumrait, Masirah Island and Masnaah. In March 2019, it was expanded to allow US forces to use the ports of Duqm and Salalah.

Duqm, situated in southern Oman on the Arabian Sea, about 500km from the Strait of Hormuz, is large enough to handle US aircraft carriers and improves the United States' ability to counter Iran, according to US officials.

Joint British-Omani manoeuvres

On March 12, British and Omani forces concluded joint exercise Mountain Storm 2023, which involved the Sultan of Oman's Parachute Regiment and some military units from the Royal British Forces.

The drill, which kicked off February 28, included "multiple military tactics and joint field training", according to Muscat Daily.

For four months each year, British forces train with Omani forces during a series of drills that are part of the overarching Exercise Desert Khanjar (Dagger).

The manoeuvres take place during the two annual, four-month deployments of British troops to the British army's Land Regional Hub in Duqm, according to the British Ministry of Defence (MoD).

It is the British army's foremost annual training and defence engagement event across the Gulf region, involving up to 1,000 British and 100 Omani soldiers.

"The combined exercise saw soldiers operate alongside the Royal Army of Oman on the Ras Madrakah joint training area, as they built towards a mock assault on an enemy urban area," the MoD said in a February 18 account of the drill.

"The exercise tested troops' ability to train and operate in arduous terrain" and helped them improve key soldiering skills and work with partner forces, it said.

Duqm logistics base expansion

In October 2018, the UK Joint Logistics Support Base opened at Duqm port -- a military base large enough to accommodate the British Royal Navy's nuclear submarines and Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

A separate facility, the Omani-British Joint Training Area, opened in 2019 in the Ras Madrakah training area near Duqm, to become the largest training area used by the British Army.

The UK Joint Logistics Support Base is designed to facilitate the deployment of the British Armed Forces in regional waters and to support British maritime operations.

These have included the February 23 interception of a boat smuggling Iranian weapons, including anti-tank missiles, off the coast of Oman.

In September 2020, the British Ministry of Defence announced it would invest an additional £23.8 million ($31 million) to expand its logistics hub at Duqm, tripling the size of the existing base.

UK Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace announced the expansion during a visit to the sultanate that also included a tour of the Musandam peninsula, which provides a strategic vantage point over the Strait of Hormuz.

At least a third of the world's seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian forces on May 3 seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker, in the second such incident in less than a week.

The tanker, Niovi, was sailing from Dubai towards the Emirati port of Fujairah when a dozen Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) fast-attack craft swarmed the vessel in the middle of the strait, the US Navy said.

"The IRGCN subsequently forced the oil tanker to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran," it said.

Iran has harassed or attacked 15 internationally flagged merchant vessels in Gulf waters over the past two years, the US Navy said, calling its actions "contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability".

Exercise Inferno Creek

Exercise Inferno Creek is a recurring manoeuvre designed to strengthen the relationship between the US military and the Royal Army of Oman.

It is an opportunity for both militaries to build tactical proficiency, gain shared understanding and support long-term regional stability, the US military said.

Such exercises enhance military readiness in the region, it said, increasing responsiveness and building strong and productive relationships.

For a few weeks annually, US and Omani soldiers train side by side. Last August, Inferno Creek 22 was held over two weeks in Dhofar province.

The training focused on increasing the interoperability of planning processes between the partner nations and culminated in a digital command post exercise.

"We have very similar processes, which makes it way easier than I thought to integrate," said US Army Spc. Autumn Roach, combat engineer with the 710th Explosive Hazardous Co-ordination Cell (EHCC).

In January 2018, the three-week joint training exercise was held near Thumrait, with Oman and the United States each contributing "scouts, mortars, infantry, engineers, and other elements that worked hand-in-hand to complete their task".

This included an assault on a simulated enemy compound followed by a hasty defence against an armoured enemy counterattack.

During the drill's 2019 iteration, held in the desert around Rabkoot, US and Omani soldiers "gained shared understanding of each other's tactics, techniques and procedures".

"I think it's important that we're ambassadors for the US," US Army Capt. Charles Woods said following the exercise's 2019 iteration.

"That we're approachable; that they know some of our [tactics, techniques and procedures]; how we operate and that they're comfortable if they ever need to work with us in the future."