Tuesday, ships and aircraft under the control of US Central Command fought off the largest attack on Red Sea shipping since the Israel-Hamas war started. F/A-18s from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower teamed up with the Arleigh-Burke class destroyers USS Gravely, USS Laboon, USS Mason, and the United Kingdom’s HMS Diamond to shoot down 18 suicide drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile. There were no casualties or damage to military or commercial shipping.
What makes this attack unique among the 26 missile attacks and three hijacking attempts the Houthis have attempted is that this attack coincided with the passage of four US-flagged vessels carrying military cargo. The Houthis claim they targeted one of them because it was headed for Israel.
Later, Houthi military spokesman Yahya al-Sarea confirmed that its forces had carried out an operation involving "a large number of ballistic and naval missiles and drones".
"It targeted a US ship that was providing support for the Zionist entity [Israel]," he said.
In response, the US and Britain sent another volley of strongly worded warnings winging toward the Houthis.
Asked if there could be Western military action against Houthi targets in Yemen, or even targets inside Iran, [UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapp] replied: "I can't go into details but can say the joint statement we issued set out a very clear path that if this doesn't stop then action will be taken. So, I'm afraid the simplest thing to say [is] 'watch this space'."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded in a similar vein at a press conference earlier today.
QUESTION: Yes, Mr. Secretary. You talk about responding; you talk about consequences. Given that the Houthis have claimed credit for this attack – they said it was targeted towards an American warship – have we reached the point where talk of consequences have to turn into action?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I’m not going to telegraph or preview anything that might happen. All I can tell you is, again, we’ve made clear, we’ve been clear with more than 20 other countries that if this continues as it did yesterday, there will be consequences. And I’m going to leave it at that.
Houthis Get Strongly Worded Memo Demanding They Stop Attacks
While several sources report that the target was an American-flagged ship with an American crew, no one is reporting the name and type of ship. The fact that an American ship was deliberately targeted can only be taken as a provocation designed to see how much pushing it will take to get a military response out of the White House. While this engagement was underway, the Iranian Red Sea flotilla was in the immediate area. One of those ships is the Behshad, which provides intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition support to the Houthis.
The agency charged with protecting US ships is the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation. So far, "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg has not found the time to say anything on the subject.
The engagement appears to have taken place as part of a convoy operation.
When it comes to Army combat, few commands harden a soldier like “fix bayonets”. However, in merchant convoy operations at sea, the equivalent command is “attention all ships, full speed ahead”. Just yesterday, a UK Royal Navy officer issued this command over the VHF radio to all ships in the vicinity of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
That command followed the launch of a swarm of drones and a barrage of anti-ship missiles in the Red Sea yesterday in what one Naval officer in the region explained to gCaptain as “Greyhound Day” and the US Central Command described as the most “complex attack” against shipping in the Red Sea to date, at least one warship – HMS Diamond – resorted to the use of its guns, a defensive tactic reminiscent of the Battle of the Atlantic.
A month ago, after another successful engagement of a Houthi swarm attack, I said this:
While we must acknowledge this engagement's success, it is not sustainable. The Eisenhower CSG is not playing the game to win; they are playing to not lose. They are like the team sitting on a one-point lead at halftime and trying to run out the clock. The Eisenhower must be successful 100 percent of the time; the Houthis only need to occasionally have a missile or drone leak through to achieve their mission.
US Navy Destroyer and Fighters Engage 17 Houthi Missiles and Drones
The effects of the Houthi blockade of the Red Sea is beginning to be felt by retailers in the form of a disrupted supply chain and a substantial increase in shipping costs. Playing silly games like this prolongs the economic dislocation and puts sailors at risk. The Biden White House needs to either enforce freedom of navigation on one of the world's important sea lines of communication, or it needs to abandon this mission and stop making a fool of itself, no matter how much sexual pleasure Jake Sullivan gets out of that experience.