U.S. Military Launches “Operation Prosperity Guardian” to Protect Shipping in the Red Sea, with Mixed Results
Several nations refuse to sign up for U.S.-led maritime operation, but merchant shipping may be restarting in the Red Sea
As we have extensively reported, the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has been doing their best to disrupt merchant shipping transiting the Red Sea:
- Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Shipping Causing Ripple in Global Economy
- Gaza War Updates: Iran-Backed Houthis Seize British-Owned, Japanese-Operated Cargo Ship Connected To Israeli Businessman
- Israel at War: Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Fire Ballistic Missiles at U.S. Warship Rescuing Israel-Linked Tanker
It’s gotten so bad that the Biden Administration is considering re-designating the Houthis a terrorist organization: Kirby: Biden Admin ‘Going to Review’ Decision Lifting Designation of Houthis as a Terrorist Organization
This fairly thorough piece in Foreign Policy explains why the Red Sea is so important:
Moses may have parted the Red Sea, but now, thanks to a wave of Houthi missile attacks, shipping companies are departing it in droves.
So far, the Iran-backed Yemeni group has launched at least 100 missile and drone attacks against a dozen ships in the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials, and threatened to target all vessels heading toward Israel, whether or not they are Israeli-owned or operated. To avoid suffering the same fate, major energy and shipping companies, including BP and Maersk, have halted their operations there—rattling energy markets and driving up global oil prices and soon everything else. The Red Sea is what connects Asia to Europe, in terms of cargo ships, so disruptions are felt around the world….
Tucked between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan, the Red Sea is an entryway to the Suez Canal and one of the world’s key global trade corridors, overseeing some 12 percent of global trade and nearly one-third of global container traffic. With as many as 19,000 ships crossing through the Suez Canal annually, the inlet is a strategic pressure point in the energy and commodity trade….
Worried by the Houthi attacks, a growing list of major energy companies and shipping firms—including BP, Equinor, Maersk, Evergreen Line, and HMM—have rerouted their ships or suspended operations in the Red Sea. Rather than steaming through the narrow sea, at least 100 ships have instead traveled around the bottom of southern Africa—a detour that can extend ship journeys by thousands of miles and delay freight by weeks.
For now, that will…mean delays, higher costs, and continued disruptions.
The Biden Administration may be considering striking Houthi targets in Yemen, but has held off for now.
Instead, the Administration has commenced defensive operations in support of maintaining the flow of commerce through the Red Sea, calling the effort “Operation Prosperity Guardian.” From Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s statement on the subject:
The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law. The Red Sea is a critical waterway that has been essential to freedom of navigation and a major commercial corridor that facilitates international trade. Countries that seek to uphold the foundational principle of freedom of navigation must come together to tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor launching ballistic missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) at merchant vessels from many nations lawfully transiting international waters.
This is an international challenge that demands collective action. Therefore, today I am announcing the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of its Task Force 153, which focuses on security in the Red Sea.
Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.
Soon after it was announced, however, France, Spain, and Italy announced that they would not participate if the Operation was under United States Leadership. From Reuters via the maritime blog GCaptain: Spain, Italy, France Decline US Command Of Red Sea Operation Prosperity Guardian:
The United States is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new U.S.-led operation.
The lack of details and clarity over what countries are doing has added to confusion for shipping companies, some of which have been re-routing vessels away from the area after the attacks, which the Houthis say are a response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip….
FRANCE: France’s Defence Ministry said it supported efforts to secure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and surrounding area and said it already operated in the region but it said its ships would stay under French command and did not say if it would deploy more naval forces.
France has a naval base in the United Arab Emirates and 1,500 troops in Djibouti. Its frigate Languedoc is now in the Red Sea.
ITALY: Italy’s Defence Ministry said it would send naval frigate Virginio Fasan to the Red Sea to protect its national interests in response to specific requests made by Italian shipowners.
It said this was part of its existing operations and was not part of Operation Prosperity Guardian.
SPAIN: Spain’s Defence Ministry said it would only participate in NATO-led missions or EU-coordinated operations. “We will not participate unilaterally in the Red Sea operation,” it said.
[emphasis added]
Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea has practically Collapsed as France, Spain, and Italy have all announced their Withdrawal from the U.S. Command Structure for the Operation, with the Three Nations stating they will only conduct further Maritime Operations under the… pic.twitter.com/zhfih2XpTa
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 23, 2023
Amazing Foreign Policy work once again by the Biden Administration. https://t.co/xAlkjtRfsF
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 22, 2023
The Saudis apparently aren’t interested:
BREAKING:
Saudi Arabia rejects United States request to join Operation Prosperity Guardian against Houthis. pic.twitter.com/SXZsPVsABo
— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) December 26, 2023
To sum up:
Biden is such a bad president that most countries don’t trust him or his administration to put themselves under his command. Operation Prosperity Guardian is a complete bust. https://t.co/doGnuRdkzm
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 23, 2023
But all is not lost, as at least one of the shipping lines that withdrew from the Red Sea has returned, for now: Shipping giant to resume Red Sea voyages with Operation Prosperity Guardian in place:
Denmark-based shipping giant Maersk announced Sunday it plans to resume routes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, days after the U.S. said it was forming a coalition with several nations to defend vessels from Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Maersk paused routes through the Bab el-Mandeb strait earlier in December because of attacks against its ships, and the Suez Canal, which is heavily traversed by ships from around the world, became unusable for most routes.
Without the route, global commerce was bound to be hit hard, as many companies chose to reroute ships around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa….
Maersk said on Sunday it had received confirmation that Operation Prosperity Guardian was in place and sailings would resume through the Suez Canal.
Maersk, CMA CGM and COSCO have resumed, in part, transiting through the Red Sea both eastbound and westbound, thanks to the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG).
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) December 26, 2023
And it appears Greece has signed up:
JUST IN‼️
Greece dispatches frigate to Red Sea to join the multinational force led by the United States
🇺🇸🇬🇧🇧🇭🇨🇦🇫🇷🇮🇹🇳🇱🇳🇴🇸🇨🇪🇸🇬🇷 #ProsperityGuardian pic.twitter.com/We6q0kgoXc— Harry Theocharous (@TheocharousH) December 21, 2023
We will keep an eye on this, of course, but there is yet another maritime event that happened that we must inform you about.
Two days before Christmas a merchant ship was attacked as it transited the Arabian Sea on its way to India from Saudi Arabia:
A Commercial Shipping Vessel in the Arabian Sea, roughly 200nm off the Coast of India has reportedly been Struck by a “One-Way” Attack Drone causing a Large Explosion and a Fire which has now been Extinguished; there were No Casualties from the Attack but Naval Ships in the… pic.twitter.com/nN2S3rCnuo
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 23, 2023
The ship, the Liberian-flagged Motor Vessel Chem Pluto, has been damaged and some reporting suggests that the attack was launched by an Iranian naval vessel:
The Commercial Shipping Vessel which was Struck by a “One-Way” Attack Drone earlier today while in the Arabian Sea roughly 200nm from India, has now been Identified as the Liberian-Flagged Oil and Chemical Tanker M/V Chem Pluto who was carrying Oil from a Port in Saudi Arabia to… pic.twitter.com/FWD0HX18Q9
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 23, 2023
Although no one was injured and the vessel is still underway, damage was fairly extensive:
Images have been released by the Indian Navy showing the Damage caused to the Stern of the Liberian-Flagged Chemical and Oil Tanker, M/V CHEM PLUTO after it was Struck by a One-Way “Suicide” Drone launched by Iran on Saturday while Transiting the Arabian Sea between Saudi Arabia… pic.twitter.com/ktdoas9aZN
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 26, 2023
Things are obviously pretty hot on the high seas right now. We will continue to track these events and the Biden Administration’s response to them.
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Comments
Surely it can’t be that difficult to figure out where the attacks are coming from and turn the area into glass?
I agree. I’d love to see a good fight.
Yeah, a good fight is one that stops this stupid, terrorist garbage.
“Winning in war” has been declared a war crime by the UN and the democrats. But Traitor Joe and his ilk would have no problem nuking all of us. Just for fun, even.
No, it’s actually very difficult to figure out where the missile attacks are coming from. The launchers are mobile. Some drones are fired off the back of pickup trucks or from man-portable ground launchers.
We couldn’t find Saddam’s Scuds despite our best efforts.
I say we identify where the missiles are coming from and nuke the sights from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure
Well, figuring things out is not our forte anymore. If we could figure how all those illegal aliens are getting into our country we could plug the hole or something.
Via the Oval Office.
ROFLMAO!! Traitor Joe and the left are ANTI-PROSPERITY!! We need guardians against them. A great first step would be to ban the laughable “mail-in” ballots and “anonymous drop-off” ballots, which are nothing but tools for massive fraud, dare I say, “an insurrection” via the electoral machinery.
And Traitor Joe and his junta need to be held for their treasonous actions of giving aid and comfort to the Iranians so that they can wage war on the West via the Middle East and elsewhere. TREASON. How about Operation Try The Traitors?
It seems to me that each attack should be met with 10-100 fold the level of force. Also, make an example of Iran so that other countries understand that supporting any of this will be very costly.
That would be ‘make an example of Iran AGAIN’.
As in the Tanker War of the late 80s when Iran lost most of its navy playing the FAFO game in Op Preying Mantis.
To be fair, ships need to look to the country they flag for defense on the seas. If they want to flag these ships in Liberia then they can get the Liberian Navy to fight for their right of commerce.
Yep. The US should at minimum prioritize protection, interdiction v hostile actors at sea for US flagged vessels. If a particular shipping company chooses to be flagged by another Nation then they should do so with the understanding that Nation’s Navy if any will be their protector.
Only a lot of that freight on those ships is either going or coming to us or our allies in Europe.
Our European allies can invest in a Navy if they want protection. France, Italy and Spain, the major EU and NATO Mediterranean powers, just told the US they didn’t want any part of a US led joint naval taskforce to suppress/eliminate the threat. Doesn’t seem like our ‘allies’ are very keen on cooperation so they shouldn’t expect the US to make them a priority.
Well, I can’t actually blame them. It’s not like the administration makes Americans a priority.
“Mixed”?
What were the good results?
Stumbling mumbling biden, international symbol of weakness, getting pushed around the world stage by 4th world clowns.
This is so pathetic.
Not to mention expensive.
And, never ending operation – trying to defend against attacks that can come at any time, entirely at the leisure of this Iran-backed Terror group. Without ever doing anything at all to destroy their capabilities for launching such attacks, or punishing them in any way for doing so.
If we had a POTUS worthy of the office, just minimally competent, he’d launch an air raid to blow the Houthis back to the stone age (which, apparently, they just evolved from about a day ago).
If we had a real POTUS, he would respond to every one of these attacks with an attack on Iran. Start by blowing up their two main oil export port’s facilities.
What is even worse is that there isn’t a single other country on the planet that is doing anything at all.
They’re either cheering on the attacks (57 muslim countries, plus China and Russia and all their satellites) or they are just sitting this out and waiting for the US to secure this trade route.
Your last paragraph is the real solution – bomb Iran with every attack by one of its proxies. I have said since 10/7 that all hostages could have been gotten back with Biden going on TV and saying they were to be returned immediately or the bombing of Iran oil facilities, simultaneous with the address, would be repeated daily. By the way, how often have we heard from Biden about the 32 Amreican citizens killed on 10/7 or of the American hostages.
Doing it your way means it is mostly over, Doing it the present way assures more defens contracts, more cost overruns, and yet another American generation’s healthiest stock being killed off.
“If we had a real POTUS, he would respond to every one of these attacks with an attack on Iran. Start by blowing up their two main oil export port’s facilities.”
Please don’t bother President Biden this morning. (/sarc)
Haven’t you heard? He’s off…on vacation once again to the US Virgin Islands.
This is a problem of feckless and incompetent Dhimmi-crat leadership, not military might.
A few substantive missile strikes on land targets and the swif destruction of any enemy boats would take care of the problem. Dotard Biden is too witless and inept to even accomplish this simple outcome.
” *swift” destruction”
“non-state actor launching ballistic missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs)”
Perhaps it has taken me longer than most to figure out that UAV went from meaning Unmanned Aerial Vehicle” to “Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle”. This is undoubtedly because someone in the missing “crew” might have been a woman – whatever that is.
Someone in our military is clearly “unscrewed”.
That’s the real problem with the military side of things. They want to keep their positions so the leadership in our military kowtows to the powers that be in the White House, whoever they are. Except Trump of course!
You can get a long way in internal politics with just a competent “cool name department.” With external realpolitik, you need some other competencies.
@billroggio
If you haven’t noticed, we are already in a war.
The Iranians and Houthis are attacking our warships and international shipping.
You can pretend you aren’t in a war, but the enemy gets a vote.
To go back even further in time — the malignant and belligerent Iranian, Muslim supremacist regime has been at war with the U.S., Israel and the west, since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Every nation except Israel has understood this, but, the U.S. has been led by too many emasculated, naive, dim-witted and incompetent Dhimmi-crat presidents — a tenure of leadership that reached its destructive nadir in the utterly stupid and witless narcissism of dunce, Obama — to have reacted, accordingly. Only Reagan and Trump took the Iranian threat to global peace and stability, seriously.
“Every nation with the exception of Israel has failed to understand this…”
The last time this kind of thing happened, a song was written about it. It went:
From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…
Of course, a song was written for this go around too. It went:
Send in the clowns…
Does anyone actually think there is a drone and ballistic missile factory being operated by Houthi tribesmen? Well there isn’t. These devices are being imported along with the rest of the food and armaments which are keeping the Houthi side of the Yemen civil war supplied.
The Houthis control one port (Aden) with exactly eight cranes capable of handling a shipping container and one airport with similar capability about 3 miles away.
If the world wants their trade via the Suez canal safe from Houthi attack the solution seems quite simple. If the Houthis want to keep eating even more so.
To perform these types of operations requires people that are competent. The problem with that is they been in the process of removing all of the competent people from the military
First things first. Before the U.S. undertakes an operation such as this, shouldn’t there be some official finding as to whether the Houthi militia has engaged in improper pronoun usage or misgendering? If their pronoun usage and gender IDing is acceptably woke, then perhaps the Houthi militia’s motivations are holy and pure. In that case, the U.S. should consider supporting the Houthi militia to show solidarity with their LGBTQ+ wokeness. I think we can all agree that global trade issues should never be prioritized over global wokeness.
Perhaps we should begin with getting Claudine Gay’s guidance.
Let me explain why this is going to become a very difficult mission for the USN and likely to play righ into the hands of the Iranians and their proxies. The carrier feets is limited in its inability to shoot down these drones. The Reason is easy to understand. The drones used by the Houths cost about $3k each while the missiles we use to shoot them down cost about 2 million each. If they shoot 100 drones it costs them about $250,000, If we shoot them down it takes 100 or more missles at a cost of about $200 million. The destroyers carry about 100 missiles each. Unfortunately, the USN does not have tenders with supplies (OUr genius admirals thought them unnecessary) and when the destroyer runs out they have to withdraw to the nearest port, probably Diego Garcia, and replenish their supplies and return to the battle. When the destroyer withdraws so do the carriers as they require the protection from the destroyers. The result could well be the Houthis and Iran claim victory and that would not look too good from Biden in an election year. Then, remember the USN and Pentagon remains under th firm control of the generals and admirals who so adeptly handled the Afghan fiasco.
Other than the financial and operational logistics you talk about, another consideration is the US military is reactionary, showing weakness and playing defense.
Yep. The path to actually resolving this situation is attacking the point of origin of missile attacks/from attacks. Not just in a ‘oh, they fired a missile from a particular 10 digit grid location’ and putting a tomahawk on it or something similar for drone launch points, some of which likely come from vessels at sea.
It means blowing the place up and inserting ground forces to clear and occupy the area. That in turn means lots of dead folks almost all non US but some US casualties should be expected. In addition that means lots of propaganda about the US indiscriminately killing to accomplish its objectives. Then there’s the ground phase both initial clear and hold as well as more/less defensive posture for the area taken in the intermediate/long term.
So in sum Biden is unlikely to commit US ground forces to do this in an effective manner nor use air assets or cruise missiles which may fit the demands of the chest thumping ‘Merica crowd of neocons but are really a half ass and ultimately ineffective way. Why? They do not want body bags in an election year nor a bunch of bad press takes about the US military/Biden admin blowing up some poor little 3rd world place.
So we let them attack and blow people up regardless. Even our own people! Yuck.
Firstly it isn’t up the USA to act as the world police, that’s neocon fairy dust, so ‘letting them’ is not very accurate. It isn’t as if these goons asked permission and we said sure go ahead.
To solve the issue requires occupation of the areas where these folks are in order to:
1. Kill as many of these goons as.possible
2. Destroy the coins ability to wage conflict
3. Deny the necessary locations to operate
Throwing around a bunch of missiles and bombs will not really solve the problem. To argue contrary then you also believe Bill Clinton launching a bunch of wag the dog cruise missile strikes was effective.
10 minutes worth of missile strikes can wipe out the source of Houthis missiles.
The question seems to be who has the balls to pull the trigger.
What a seamless shift from Ukraine to Yemen…
The US sent over 5 billion to Yemen in the guise of humanitarian aid. Just like in Ukraine, we don’t know exactly where the money went but it certainly didn’t have an impact since Houthi threats have escalated. And now, in response, the US military has opened a new front and the cash registers of the war machine are filling up thank you very much.
The Biden gang is looking for armed conflict as there is an election coming up. But Yemen is the small potato stepping stone. The prize is a proxy war with Russia (always has). So what is exactly the endgame? On November 30, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov called us out for pushing Moldova into the conflict to take the place of Ukraine. Such an escalation with Russia will create a novel “National Security War Emergency” excuse the Biden gang can use to muzzle free speech on the campaign trail and, maybe, throw Trump in jail.
Not mentioned in the blog post: Operation Prosperity Guardian is being led by the USS Weakness. The USS Appeasement has also set sail for the Red Sea.
I thought the Houthi’s were a bunch of primitives until I saw this video. It turns out they just have had bad branding advice.
Best played with the sound off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BimV-8973xA
Boy … we really missed a great target with that parade. It would make for great video, too – even better than the Ayatollah’s funeral procession (which was one of the first videos the west scrubbed from the internet in order to try and appease the muslim world – just the part where the crowd tossed his rotten carcass onto the ground and then went in on it like rabid Beatle’s fan girls).
I enjoyed how it led with an F5 fighter flying overhead. This is a 64 year old design with very limited avionics and weapons carrying capacity. We use it as the P-38 trainer. It’s a sweet ride and a terrifying weapons system to nations that were using spears or muzzle-loaders a few decades ago, but flying it against modern fighters is a suicide mission.
If the CIA had not overthrown the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh, and replaced him with the hated Shah, there would have been no Iranian Revolution and no Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Can you say, “blowback,” boys and girls? Of course you can!
Democratically elected … sure, but he was trying to steal the oil fields. he got what he deserved.
The Shah was pro-western. If it weren’t for the idiot Jimmy Carter and the despicable French there would have been no islamic revolution in Iran.
You don’t have the firmest grasp on history …
The US should withdraw from the operation and allow the European countries to field the operation. It’s about time they did their part to protect their interests.
“Operation Prosperity Guardian”.
God, what a stupid name. Just what you’d expect from a gang of Lefties – a compound lie.
They hate prosperity and they are worthless when it comes to guarding anything.
FJB