Ixtoc-Alfa is a counter-terrorism base created by the

Mexican Navy The Mexican Navy is one of the two independent armed forces of Mexico. The actual naval forces are called the ''Armada de México''. The ''Secretaría de Marina'' (''SEMAR'') (English: Naval Secretariat) includes both the ''Armada'' itself and ...

for the purpose of preventing terrorist attacks on the country's

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

oilfields. It was first opened on 22 December 2003. The base is located on the

Campeche Bank Campeche Bank is part of the Gulf of Mexico and extends from the Yucatan Straits in the east to the Tabasco-Campeche Basin in the west.Campeche Bankin Geonames.org (cc-by)/ref> The Campeche ocean bank is from Mexico's geography of Campeche na ...

, a coastal shelf off the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

. The base currently has a MI-17 MBT helicopter, 90H Fast patrol Boats. A special group named ASIES also provides security for better coverage and quick response in case of sabotage or if there is an unidentified vessel in the area. The area is permanently patrolled by Sa'ar 4.5 class missile boat navy vessels.

Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

E-2 Hawkeye early-alert planes also add up to the task.

References

Opera la Armada base antiterrorista
on '' El Universal''
Construye una base antiterrorista en la plataforma petrolera Ixtoc-Alfa
on ''

La Jornada ''La Jornada'' (''The Working Day'') is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor ''(directora general)'' is Carmen Lira Saade. ''La Jornada'' has presence in eight sta ...

''
'Acorazan' plataformas petroleras
on ''

El Siglo de Torreón EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American ...

'' 2003 in Mexico Military installations of Mexico Counterterrorism {{Mexico-struct-stub