CNO when America was still America:
Posted on 02/19/2024 5:28:27 PM PST by Paul R.
The crew of a Belize-flagged, British-registered cargo vessel have abandoned ship off Yemen after it was hit by missiles fired by the Houthi movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The owner of the ship chose to fly the flag of Belize. This was certainly done to get around UK taxes and regulations. So perhaps the owner should put in a call to the Belize navy. Let them handle it.
CNO when America was still America:
When the Germans bombed England, did we bomb Italy to get even?
The Iran-backed hooties attack us, we should attack the Iranians...
We’ve actually taken out quite a lot of Houthi weaponry, and attacks were down in frequency until this last weekend, but, even if we got 90% in only a few weeks, 10% of the Houthis’ gear remaining is enough to cause quite a bit of trouble when we are talking about trying to defend a considerable area with only a few ships.
I saw a report that the Euros are sending 4 ships - what their capabilities are, I don’t know. VERY few countries have ships with the AD capabilities of our Arleigh-Burke destroyers, and those that do, don’t have many.
Whether this Brit ship was “under protection” by a nearby US or British destroyer, I somewhat doubt. But, we shall see.
I disagree about pulling out: If this goes on for a period of several more months or more, the economic blowback could be quite bad. (Bad for us mainly as fallout of really bad economic damage in Europe.) We’re just gonna have to hit the Houthis hard enough that they can’t continue, or, do a Trump / Reagan number on their Iranian sponsors.
IF someone at DOD had thought ahead about such situations, we’d be able to blanket the Houthi controlled areas of Yemen with many hundreds of, maybe even a few thousand, modest cost drones, and they wouldn’t be able to do squat.
Anything passing the Suez canal in either direction is going to approach Yemen. That is a big deal, as this is a critical global shipping lane.
I thought president retard bombed some tents and solved this problem? He thinks he did
Nearly all merchant ships these days (and over the last 70+ years) use flags of convenience.
Tea is the least of the problems when it comes to shipping to Europe that goes through the Red Sea. Although a tea shortage may upset the Brits quite a bit...
Why not? If the Houthis can do it, a lot of groups can. I’m beginning to feel very uneasy about those trillions and trillions in what are beginning to look like obsolete weapon systems we have. Armor, surface ships, helicopters, etc. Drones and cheap missiles are changing everything.
The Saudis (using US weapons and training) have been bombing the Houthis constantly for the past decade to no effect. Each Patriot interceptor missile costs $4 million to take down a $20k drone. It’s not cost effective for us to be there and we are accomplishing nothing. Tell ships to either go around the cape or tell Israel to accept a ceasefire (which was the Houthis condition for them to cease attacking ships).
There’s video showing the SAM launch and hit shortly after. No doubt what brought it down.
The mariners in the region generally say the operation has been very effective in saving their butts, HOWEVER, this is a case where, say, “95% effective in thwarting attacks” is not good enough to prevent the shipping diversions and consequent economic disruptions as shortages develop.
In WW2, I wonder what % of losses of men and materials being sent to Europe was considered “acceptable”?
I read an Iranian story its linked on my blog the Houthis claim a takedown of one of our drones.
https://nextrushfree.blogspot.com
Yep, just watched the video. There’s debris of it all over the beach. They nailed it.
BTW, what we are doing in Operation Prosperity Guardian is, in many ways, new to us. A vet named Ward Carroll had a very good piece about that, on You Tube, and how well our Navy has adapted.
Nonetheless, we are trying to use hammers to kill flies, and THAT is what should have been realized and planned for, starting years ago. It’s ridiculous that we can’t smother the Houthis with modest cost drones of our own.
They also downed another one. That’s $60 million gone.
The WW2 Battleship USS Texas has just completed being renovated in drydock.
I added that on my blog Thank You.
I hadn’t heard that they destroyed another one.
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