Posted on 01/26/2024 8:29:09 AM PST by george76
Two US-flagged container ships under the protection of the US Navy were forced to retreat from a passage of the Red Sea after coming under fire from Houthi terrorists on Wednesday.
The US-flagged container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake were supposed to enter the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and transit the Red Sea under the protection of the US Navy. The US Navy has done this once before. On January 10, a convoy of four US-flagged ships carrying military cargo passed through the Red Sea. It came under a complex attack of 18 suicide drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile. The convoy was successfully completed without damage or casualties.
This time, the story had a different ending.
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Let's recap.
The two US ships were engaged well outside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. They were under the air defense protection of the USS Gravely. The USS Gravely is part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group and has been operating in the Red Sea. It appears to have been detached to escort the two container ships through the Strait. This map shows the approximate position of the ships at the time of the engagement.
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The Houthis fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles. The USS Gravely shot down two of them. The third impacted just a few hundred meters from the Maersk Detroit. The Navy ordered the two ships to return to a safe holding area off Oman. Rather than continue the transit, Maersk ordered its ships to pack it in.
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This entire exercise borders on disastrous given the history of the US-led (lol) Operation Prosperity Guardian and Operation Poseidon Archer.
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The Iranians have moved their intelligence ship, MV Behshad, from inside the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Given the Houthis' target acquisition capabilities, Iran almost certainly provided the targeting information on the Maersk Detroit. At some point, this ship needs to suffer an unfortunate accident.
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While the Houthis didn't hit anything, they clearly won the engagement. The Navy ordered its charges out of the area, and the convoy to Suez was scrubbed. Maersk has suspended US-flagged operations in the area, which is hardly a vote of confidence.
The image of the US Navy turning tail is not going to help the security situation in the Red Sea. The Houthis have shown they can shut down two maritime chokepoints, that they can stop the US Navy from running a convoy through the Red Sea, and that the US is literally afraid to do very much about it. Unless something changes, Biden may have managed to turn a mere defeat into a strategic debacle on the scale of Afghanistan.
Another manufactured group of pi$$ants kicking our a$$es?
I have no words that haven’t been said before about this administration.
I’m embarrassed as hell for the navy.
Maybe a trans inclusion video and some sensitivity training would have made a difference to the military outcome.
The mighty U S Navy just as well pick up and go home before thousands are killed, as long as the CCP is calling the shots in the Biden administration.
When I fell asleep in that cave in 2020, President Trump and several leaders in the Middle East were signing the Abraham Accords. Now that I’ve waken up, I see that we’re being chased out of the region by some group called the Houthis. What changed?
“The Iranians have moved their intelligence ship, MV Behshad...”
Short of sinking her, would it be possible to disrupt her ability to communicate?
Maybe that’s the plan. Get our guys killed, then beat the drums.
Article omits the successful drag-show pride event held aboard the USS Gravely.
Gary Busey?…
The Germans laid mines in the approaches to the Red Sea in WW II. Not a lot, but a few. Post-war minesweeping was as thorough as can be but was not perfect.
That may well be true.
And as for the Houthis.....let them have the full medicine of the USA Air Force, destroy their infrastructure completely:
BUt Demented JOe and his surrogates Susan Rice, Barrack Hussein Obama, do not want Victory....they wants continual stalemates so his donors can get huge weapons supply contracts for a long time.
Too bad they’re gone. This would’ve been a beautiful mission for the USS Wisconsin or New Jersey.
If the President orders the Navy to run away, like in Afghanistan, will they take their ships, or just leave them behind for the Houthis?
If Biden fights Texas the way he fights the Islamists, I like our chances.
We have been and are being invaded and conquered on our Southern border, not in the Aden/Arabian Sea. We shouldn’t be there.
Earlier in the week we had folks ragging on anyone who questioned the Jerusalem Post headline that US attacks on the Houthis showed the US and allies meant meant business, or something.
I said let’s see 6 weeks of no Houthi attacks to prove we meant business.
Where are all the “anti-isolationists” now?
I’m not an isolationist, but if we are not going to make it a deadly mistake to attack US interests, we probably are better off staying home. A reputation for weakness invites war.
God help us. We have an obsolete trillion dollar navy.
You would think the Navy could jam that ship easily enough.
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