Since October 2001 the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has maintained a continuous presence in and around Iraqi territorial waters as part of Operation Slipper and subsequent operations. There were four major rotations of RAN ships to this area of operations between December 2001 and March 2003. The primary focus of these rotations was to conduct Maritime Interception Operations as part of a US, Australian and British force enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions against Iraq. The first rotation consisted of Her Majesty's Australian Ships (HMAS) "Sydney", "Adelaide" and "Kanimbla". These ships were followed in February 2002 by HMA Ships "Canberra", "Newcastle" and "Manoora" and again in July 2002 by HMAS "Arunta" and "Melbourne".