The US-led campaign to protect Israeli interests in the Red Sea has escalated into the "most intense" running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, according to an AP report quoting American military commanders and experts.
The report reveals that the US Navy has been stretched thin after seven months of continuous naval operations against Yemen’s Armed Forces. Commanders warn that the situation is increasingly perilous.
“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” said Cmdr. Eric Blomberg aboard the USS Laboon in the Red Sea. “We only have to get it wrong once. The Houthis (Yemen’s Ansarullah movement) just have to get one through.”
Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, emphasized the severity of the situation, stating, “This is the most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II.”
“We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the US can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage,” he added.
Capt. David Wroe, commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers, described the relentless nature of the operations: “It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that.”
Yemen initiated its naval operations in the Red Sea in October, aiming to halt what they describe as the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. Nearly every day, Yemeni forces have launched missiles, drones, or other attacks in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Yemeni operations are intended to disrupt the passage of Israeli-linked ships through waters around Yemen, as a response to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in over 35,000 deaths, including more than 15,000 children.
The AP report highlighted a particularly intense round of combat on January 9, where the USS Laboon, other vessels, and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and a ballistic missile launched by Yemeni forces.
Yemeni leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi claimed on Thursday that they have attacked 145 ships linked to Israel, the US, and the UK as part of their retaliatory naval operations. He vowed to continue targeting American warships in the Red Sea and beyond, including the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
This ongoing conflict marks a significant escalation in naval engagements for the US Navy, reminiscent of the “Tanker Wars” of the 1980s in the Persian Gulf but involving more direct and sustained attacks.
