Yesterday, Shiite Houthi forces attacked the oil tanker Swan Atlantic and the container ship Clara in the Red Sea.
Due to the increasing number of attacks, the oil and gas company BP has suspended all shipping in the Red Sea.
Shipping companies Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have also previously stopped shipping through the region.
The Red Sea is basically cut off!
Prosperity Guard
Yesterday, the United States announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, which will work with the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to protect the Red Sea.
However, the UAE and Saudi Arabia rejected the US proposal against Yemen!
100 help plan
However, there is interesting news, 3 days ago, the Houthi attack on the container ship Palatium III owned by the Swiss company MSC did not attract the attention of the West**, but it was an epoch-making attack.
What is special about this incident is that the Houthis hit a moving cargo ship with Iranian ballistic missiles, which is actually itFor the first time in modern history, a shore-to-ship missile was used to successfully strike a moving ship in real combat conditions.
Back in the last century, a number of countries showed interest in creating anti-ship ballistic missiles, which have a much shorter flight duration compared to winged aircraft, which reduces the likelihood of detection and interception.
However, it is difficult to achieve this, and the existing control systems do not ensure accurate strikes against moving naval targets.
China has made some progress in this area, but has never applied its progress to real combat.
Now, the Houthis attack,Actually helped Iran to prove in practice the possibility of successfully using ballistic missiles against enemy ships at sea. It can be used against a variety of targets, including the U.S. aircraft carrier formations that have dominated the oceans for decades.
The U.S. military missiles panicked
In this context, the number of ** is very important.
The USS Carney destroyer has so far shot down 22 (not necessarily complete) air attacks launched by the Houthis**.
This included attacks on various types of ships (or the Carney itself) near the choke point of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Carney's magazine holds 90 missiles of various types, which must be replenished at the port immediately.
Eight missile cruisers and destroyers belonging to the USS Ford and USS Eisenhower carrier strike groups currently operate in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The ships have a total magazine capacity of about 800 missiles and are divided into several types, including land-attack missiles that are not suitable for ship defense, and each ship also has point defense platforms with a shorter range.
The main missiles used for the defense of ships are SM-2 and SM-6.
Raytheon has been putting the production of the SM-2 missile on hold until the end of 2017 and restarted it under a large foreign sales contract.
These are older short-range intercepts** that could be used by the USS Carney destroyer to shoot down cheap attack drones from the Houthis.
The production of the SM-2 was extremely slow (less than 50 per year), and deliveries were scattered among numerous allies.
The SM-6 has replaced the SM-2 as the future deployed interception system, and Raytheon has delivered 2017 856 Block 1 1A to the US fleet since 1.
The U.S. Navy aims to double that number by 2028 to 300 units a year (currently 150-200), but Raytheon is far from reaching this capacity.
Currently, each SM-6 costs about $5 million, and the new multi-year purchase request halves the cost per unit.
The existing stocks of SM-6 are tightly managed on a global scale, as they (along with SM-3) are the first line of defense for the first island chain.
It was reported in October that the current estimate of the US Department of Defense UNCLA is that the PLA Rocket Force has at least 850 fully operational medium-range and long-range anti-ship missiles.
The two carrier strike groups currently operating in the Pacific have roughly the same number of fleet defense interceptor missiles as the Middle East, between 800 and 850, and there are virtually no surplus stocks in the western Pacific.
If the Houthis continue to attack commercial vessels, the U.S. Navy, and other allied maritime assets, and for longer, the worse it gets.
Because Thor's ** chain is sanctioned, the production capacity cannot be increased!
It is estimated that most readers are secretly happy when they see this, hoping that the US military will transfer these more than 800 missiles to the Middle East.
The war widens the haze
However, even so, the specter of expansion hangs over the entire Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Tel Aviv for an official visit to meet with Israeli Army Secretary Yoaf Galant, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wartime cabinet.
Subsequently, footage of the meeting of the American and Israeli delegations appeared.
In addition to the above-mentioned personnel, the Israeli side includes the head of the *** bureau, Chachi Hanegbi, the chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Khalevy, and the Minister of Military Affairs, Major General Avi Gill.
U.S. side: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, Secretary of Defense Chief of Staff Kelly Magsman, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Israel Stephanie Hallett.
Israel has informed Biden that as part of a diplomatic agreement, they want to push Allah about 6 miles away from the border, or the IDF will take military action, citing Israel and the United States**.