EU NAVFOR — New Operation Commander

On 14 June 2010, Rear Admi­ral Hud­son Peter Hud­son CBE hand­ed over the respon­si­bil­i­ty of Oper­a­tion Com­man­der of the Euro­pean Union Naval Force Soma­lia, Op ATALANTA to Major Gen­er­al Buster Howes OBE. The han­dover was con­duct­ed in the Oper­a­tional Head­quar­ters in North­wood near Lon­don.

The out­go­ing Oper­a­tion Com­man­der Rear Admi­ral Peter Hud­son CBE (left) hands over to the new Oper­a­tion Com­man­der Major Gen­er­al Buster Howes OBE. EU NAVFOR Pub­lic Affairs Office Click to enlarge

Rear Admi­ral Hud­son, who joined the oper­a­tion in June 2009, has been instru­men­tal in the ongo­ing suc­cess of EU NAVFOR and the exe­cu­tion of the Op ATALANTA mis­sion. Rear Admi­ral Hud­son leaves EU NAVFOR to con­tin­ue his appoint­ment as Com­man­der Unit­ed King­dom Mar­itime Force (COMUKMARFOR) in Portsmouth. 

Major Gen­er­al Howes has exten­sive oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence with­in the Unit­ed King­dom Amphibi­ous Force and the mul­ti-nation­al envi­ron­ment. He served with the US Marine Corps in the First Gulf War and with the Rapid Reac­tion Force Oper­a­tions staff of UNPROFOR in Bosnia. In 2007, he served as Chief Joint Coor­di­na­tion and Effects in HQ ISAF X in Kab­ul. His staff expe­ri­ence has been gained exclu­sive­ly with­in the Joint and Naval Staffs, where he held the appoint­ment as the 1‑Star Direc­tor of the Naval Staff. 

EU NAVFOR Soma­lia – Oper­a­tion ATALANTA’s main tasks are to escort mer­chant ves­sels car­ry­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid of the World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) and ves­sels of African Union Mis­sion in Soma­lia, AMISOM and to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble ves­sels in the Gulf of Aden and Indi­an Ocean and to deter and dis­rupt pira­cy. EU NAVFOR also mon­i­tors fish­ing activ­i­ty off the coast of Somalia. 

Source:
EU NAVFOR Pub­lic Affairs Office