The US Navy stopped yet another drone and missile barrage by the Houthis at ships in the Red Sea.
USNI News: US Destroyers, Ike Aircraft Shoot Down Houthi-Launched Missiles, Drones Over Red Sea
USS Laboon (DDg-58), USS Gravely (DDG-107), USS Mason (DDg-87) and F/A-18s from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), along with the United Kingdom’s HMS Diamond (D34), shot down a number of Houthi-launched drones and missiles over the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command announced via social media site X Tuesday night.
The ships and aircraft shot down 18 one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile Tuesday at around 9:15 p.m. local time, CENTCOM said in the release.
As reported in the article, this is the 26th time the Houthis have launched weapons at shipping in the Red Sea. That's twenty-six separate attacks without any retaliatory strikes on the launchers and launchees. Not much deterrence is going on right now.
Freedom of navigation in the sea lanes is rather important for the world economy, and such freedom has been aptly and ably enforced by the US Navy in the past.
At a certain point, eventually even the passive Biden Administration will get tired of the Houthi's antics, stop being weak and indecisive, and finally let the gloves come off.
Assuming the Navy is given free reign to both restore deterrence and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Houthis will definitively find out what happens when you interfere with US shipping and fire weapons at US warships.
Update: The Biden Administration apparently is continuing to refuse to re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, The Biden Administration had removed them, both as an appeasement move to Iran (the backer and shot-caller for the Houthis), and to stick a thumb in the eye of Saudi Arabia. The Biden policy of appeasement and weakness is sure paying dividends - for America's enemies.
3 comments:
And we piss away our missile stores bit by bit. How many birds got launched to kill 21 of theirs and how many YEARS will it take to replace them?
Pretty soon the DDs will shoot themselves dry for no real purpose..
And SecDef is UA... figures...
Rick T: On the upside, we know our stuff actually works and can shoot down these threats, which is good. You're right that we do need to produce more as this kind of threat environment is not going away any time soon.
Old NFO: Yep, funny how that happens, isn't it?
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