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 By the afternoon of the 26th requests for aid and assistance came from the affected countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives--the Government of India (GOI) announced Operation Rainbow and Operation Castor for the 2 countries respectively. These operations were also run from the IDS headquarters with representatives of strategic ministries and departments give coordinate civil-military efforts Russian Warship Go F Yourself Shirt.

Far away in the Pacific Ocean, at the Hawaii-based headquarters of the US military's joint Pacific Command (PACOM) it absolutely was still the afternoon of the 25th throughout the International Date Line, when reports of the earthquake and Tsunami first came in. Operational planning for giving an answer to the disaster began immediately with PACOM in direct contact with US Ambassadors and local military officials of the affected nations. By the 27th this effort have been named Operation Unified Assistance and was backed by the formation of an inter-agency core group at Washington to synchronize civil-military operations.

The US military has the biggest presence in the region and it seemed natural that they'd be deployed for relief operations. However this intervention was attributed by some commentators to the US government's "plan" of re-establishing military relations with Indonesia and gaining sympathy/appreciation from Muslims (India's swift response in dispatching aid its neighbors was similarly referred to as "power projection" and India's "pitch" for a lasting seat in the UN Security Council). Curiously these same commentators also criticized the Bush administration for initially providing a really low aid package of 3.5 million dollars. Now if the US really had a plan for gaining influence or appreciation would they've produce this type of low figure, when even Tsunami-hit India announced a 25 million dollar aid package for the neighbors?

In reality, like in all other countries, the US military also has international search and rescue responsibilities. Additionally it's commitments to allies like Thailand (affected by the Tsunami) and a military understanding, stemming from past exercises, with other powers in the region. The first reports of the Tsunami disaster had result from India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, which India and Thailand had announced that they'd not require any international relief assistance. PACOM had established a regional base for relief operations at Utapao in Thailand by the 28th December and sent disaster relief assessment teams to the affected countries.

It had been at the moment that Indonesia finally uncovered the massive destruction in its remote province of Aceh and the total uprooting of its local administration, and consequently appealed for aid internationally. The US increased its aid package to 350 million dollars and dispatched military assets to Aceh, that have been the first ever to reach the region on the first of January. India also responded to Indonesia's appeal for aid and despite its armed forces being already engaged in four simultaneous operations, announced Operation Gambhir (Grim), dispatching two ships and aircraft that began relief work with the 5th of January.

Inter-military cooperation

With Indian troops being the first ever to engage in relief operations, alongside local troops in Sri Lanka and Maldives, whilst the Americans played that role in Indonesia, the US government announced the formation of a "Tsunami Core Group" on the 29th December to coordinate relief work in this unprecedented global calamity. That same day the US asked India to join this group alongside long-term allies Japan and Australia.

Here again there is criticism that this core group was formed deliberately to bypass existing United Nation's bodies--a criticism that saw every US action through the prism of the recent Iraq War. In reality the core group was formed in order that aid efforts will be streamlined, duplication of relief will be avoided, and operational requirements for every single nation will be met speedily. Besides the large monetary aid promised by Japan and Australia, each country also devote military forces to their relief work. Although Australian aircraft were dropping supplies in Indonesia by early January, their ships did not reach the region until the middle of that month. Similarly Japanese self-defense forces were fully deployed on the Indonesian coast only by the end of January.

Therefore the "Tsunami Core Group" was in fact coordination involving the United States and India--both leading and dominating operations in South-east Asia and South Asia respectively.

Secondly although foreign ministers and secretaries from the core group countries had daily teleconferences to coordinate efforts, their lack of operational knowledge and real-time information meant why these teleconferences became unnecessary. Afterwards Canada, EU countries, and the UN also became area of the core group, that has been finally dissolved weekly following the post-Tsunami relief operations had begun.

Other international efforts

In addition to the militaries of the affected nations, and the forces contributed by the Tsunami Core Group, there have been countries in the region that also gave crucial aid with their neighbors. The global response was also commendable--Germany and Sweden were directly afflicted with the Tsunami while they lost a large number of their citizens in the tourist resorts of Thailand to the destructive waves. But as a result of distances involved, global military assets took quite a while to deploy in the affected region.

In South-East Asia, Singapore and Malaysia were specially noted because of their contribution of military assets--Singapore deployed 5 C-130 aircraft, 4 CH-47 and 4 Super Puma helicopters, and two LST vessels. Alongside Thailand in addition, it opened its bases for the utilization of military assets from long-term ally, the United States. Malaysia deployed 2 C-130 and 3 other aircraft, 2 helicopters, one ship, and medical and engineering teams to Indonesia. Additionally it opened its bases for use by the United Nations relief agencies.

In South Asia, Bangladesh sent 2 C-130 aircraft, 3 helicopters, and 2 ships for relief work in Sri Lanka--this being the initial occasion when the Bangladesh Navy has deployed its assets in an offshore operation. Curiously Pakistan, which is really a much bigger military power than Bangladesh, contributed similar assets for the post-Tsunami relief operations--4 ships, 2 C-130 aircraft, and a medical team. Out of their four ships deployed, the PNS Badar and the PNS Tariq happened to possess made an interface call to Male on December 23rd and were still in the Maldives when the Tsunami hit three days later--these two ships joined the Maldives Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force aircraft for search and rescue operations on the 27th.The Pakistani Armed Forces certainly had the ability to contribute more since they've received several C-130 and P-3 Orion aircraft, helicopters, and vessels, as military aid from the United States within the last six years.

But at the least they contributed some military assets--the most bewildering absence was of China. The country has acquired naval bases in South-East Asia, has professed its ambition of obtaining other bases in South Asia, and is really a rising economic and military power like India. Though the communist nation neither sent the PLA navy nor deployed the PLA air force in relief operations in its neighborhood. It only promised monetary aid, sent one medical team to Sri Lanka, and some relief material to Indonesia.

The UN and NGOs

The scale of destruction in the 26th December earthquake and Tsunami necessitated the massive deployment of military assets by the affected countries, their neighbors, and the Tsunami Core Group. The United Nations and Non Governmental Organizations did not have the resources or the assets to provide timely aid in each affected area. The repairing of infrastructure and communication links, provision of relief material, and creating of medical camps, by the military forces was a good help the UN and NGOs in starting their particular operations. But they had other differences (and some advantages) on the military forces in the delivery of aid:

Organizational infrastructure: the United Nations, and its various agencies, has regional headquarters and branch offices all around the world, which provide first-hand informative data on calamities or emergencies to the central headquarters in New York. They also employ people of all nationalities and linguistic groups, which give them a bonus in creating operations in affected regions. The larger non-governmental organizations just like the International Red Cross/Crescent, Care, World Vision, also provide worldwide offices and headquarters that enable them to receive informative data on calamities and organize rehabilitation measures. With regard to financial resources, the UN and NGOs have a comparable usage of money and material with most countries. But while national aid funds, including the Prime Minister's Relief Fund in India, spend aid money directly for relief, the UN agencies and NGOs consume unspecified levels of similar aid profit financing their particular organizations (payment of salaries, cost of operations, etc.). Through comparison, in India's relief operation for Indonesia named Gambhir (Grim), two ships with onboard helicopters and 40-tonnes of relief material operated for a month off the port of Meulaboh. The Ministry of Defence sanctioned a amount of Rs 100 crore (app $25 million) from within the Naval Budget to cover the cost of this operation...without expecting reimbursement or according to charity.

Assets: the UN and its agencies have access to transport assets with the United Nations Humanitarian Air Services (UNHAS) and the United Nations Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC). They could hire vehicles, helicopters, aircraft, and ships with the assistance of other international sources just like the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). The UN also has usage of the military assets, bases, and ports of each home country--the NGOs piggyback on both the UN and the house country's military and civil assets (the bigger NGOs though have their particular dedicated air and road transport assets). But this process of hiring, purchase, and deployment in the affected region occupies time and in the event of a global calamity, that your Indian Ocean Tsunami was, the deployment of international military assets was a good help the operations of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. For civil-military coordination the UN has work of Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) and Civil-Military Coordination officers (CMCoord) working beneath the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)--the latter office had drafted principles for military support to the United Nations' humanitarian operations, that have been endorsed by the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC).Russian Warship Go F Yourself Shirt