Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) is a United States Coast Guard command based in Manama, Bahrain.

Members aid the cutters in routine maintenance, support critical repairs, facilitate the shipping and receiving of parts, enable the movement of personnel, and liaise with Navy leadership.

PATFORSWA operates under Title 10 authorities; personnel maintain standard law enforcement qualifications with additional training tailored to the region.

These units included cutters assigned to provide escort and force protection to battle groups and Military Sealift Command (MSC) convoys passing from the Strait of Gibraltar to the eastern Mediterranean.

The service's Atlantic Area Command (LANTAREA), headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia, created a shore detachment to support its cutter operations overseas.

In October, LANTAREA created a shore detachment to oversee personnel, supply and maintenance requirements for patrol boat operations in the Persian Gulf.

LANTAREA assigned a commanding officer of PATFORSWA and selected four 110-foot Island-class patrol boats (WPBs) for the mission based on their superior maintenance records.

[8] Redeployment Assistance Inspection Detachments (RAID) consisted of Coast Guardsmen deployed with the U.S Army to support the shipment of materials in and out of war zones.

It took a monumental effort by PATFORMED support staff to prepare for patrol boat operations in the Mediterranean because no Coast Guard infrastructure existed in the region.

The WPB's primary mission had been to escort U.S. Navy supply vessels and Military Sealift Command ships out of Souda Bay, Crete, the eastern Mediterranean's logistics port for American and NATO forces.

In addition Port Security Units regularly rotated through this location protecting the Naval Base and the water ways near Kuwait and Iraq.

The service members were part of a seven-man visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team from USS Firebolt, a 174-foot Cyclone-class coastal patrol boat conducting missions in the Northern Persian Gulf in support of OIF.

Upon the family's request, PATFORSWA hosts a memorial service to honor and remember the fallen shipmates and the sacrifice they made every year since.

The two patrol boats joined the HIGGINS Surface Action Group, that subsequently launched 23 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles against chemical weapons sites in Syria.

[22] In 2021 the squadron commenced the most drastic change since the unit’s conception, decommissioning the aging 110’ WPBs and bringing in the 154’ WPC Fast Response Cutters.

Their crews quickly saw success, leveraging their experience in fisheries and counter drug enforcement to interdict numerous shipments of narcotics including hashish, heroin, methamphetamine, and captagon, as well as 170 tons of explosive precursor material.

This force of small combatants was routinely on the frontline against the unsafe and unprofessional interactions with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.