ABSTRACT
The Greek, Italian, and Turkish navies and the United State Sixth Fleet report to Allied Forces, North (AFNORTH) through two separate commands: Naval Forces, Southern Europe; and Strike Force, Southern Europe. AFSOUTH Naval forces include many NATO ships as well as additional NATO aircraft and submarines, which would have one mission of trying to seal off egress from the Black Sea. NATO's northern and southern flanks are rather thinly protected, and they are the areas where naval and marine forces could provide the greatest marginal improvements in Alliance capabilities—particularly if they were accompanied by suitable land- or sea-based air cover. The major offensive elements of AFSOUTH in the Mediterranean consist of Sixth Fleet aircraft carriers accompanied by their fifteen to twenty major surface combatants and possibly augmented by the two French aircraft carriers.
