US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced:
The "Prosperity Guardian" operation will be officially launched in the waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and 10 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Seychelles, and Bahrain, will dispatch armed forces to organize military operations.
As soon as the words ended, the US Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Carl Vinson" entered the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca and was on its way to the Middle East.
In addition to the two aircraft carriers that have been deployed to the Middle East, the three aircraft carriers of the US Navy are assembled in the surrounding areas of the Middle East, eyeing each other, which can't help but remind people of the "joint **" US military more than 70 years ago
1. The strategic situation in the Middle East.
Today, the war situation in the Middle East is gradually expanding, and more and more countries and armed groups are involved, and the Houthis and Iran are not only fully supporting Hamas, but also showing their attitude through actual combat actions.
The Houthis have blocked the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden corridor, a strategic maritime corridor in the Middle East, four of the world's five largest shipping giants have been forced to halt operations, and a number of international ships have been subjected to armed attacks in the waters around the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Iran is not idle either!
At the beginning of this month, the US Navy's "Eisenhower" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was strongly watched by the Iranian army, and the Iranian army sent drones to closely monitor the US aircraft carrier and issued a military warning to the "Eisenhower" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and the US aircraft carrier was forced to withdraw from the Persian Gulf and fled in disgrace.
Now the strategic situation in the Middle East has changed dramatically:
The Israeli army has dispatched a large number of troops to surround the Gaza Strip and the Hamas forces, compressing the living space of the Hamas forces to the extreme.
The Houthis and other armed forces have formed a counter-encirclement and blockade of Israel through armed attacks and missile attacks, and any ships related to Israel will be attacked indiscriminately by the Houthis.
This move is indeed very clever, and the Americans cannot sit still, after all, the Houthis have the support of Iran and other Middle Eastern powers behind them.
The U.S. military's own strength can't cope with the chaos in the Middle East, so it can only let the helpers play, this time led by the U.S. military, entangled the armies of a total of 10 countries, trying to strongly intervene in the Middle East situation and aid the Israeli army.
From the perspective of national strategy, the Middle East region is the core of the US overseas strategy, the Middle East is the Colosseum of great power competition, and it is the basis for the survival of the US petrodollar hegemony.
Historically, the United States has been seen in all wars in the Middle East, and has even directly dispatched troops to intervene in the Middle East, where dozens of combat ships from the navies of many countries have been assembled, and they may intervene in armed conflicts in the Middle East at any time.
Will the purpose of the United States be able to achieve this time?
Two: Can the purpose of the US military be achieved?
Let's first take a look at the military deployment of the US military in the Middle East, according to authoritative statistics, the total strength of the US military in the Middle East has reached 540,000 people, and the US military bases are distributed in 7 countries in the Middle East.
The U.S. military bases in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are the most important and are the backbone of the U.S. military's intervention in the Middle East, and the U.S. Navy is responsible for operations in the Middle East with the 5th Fleet, which is headquartered at the Mania Naval Base in Bahrain.
The US Fifth Fleet has dozens of combat ships, including missile destroyers, littoral combat ships, and cruisers, and more than 100 service vessels.
In wartime, it is responsible for protecting the US military's strategic sea passages and preventing certain countries and armed forces in the Middle East from blockading the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and other strategic passages.
The U.S. Air Force has made the Al Udeid base in Qatar the strongest air base in the Middle East, where the 379th Expeditionary Wing of the U.S. Air Force has been deployed, equipped with hundreds of fighters, bombers, tankers and transport aircraft, and if necessary, the B-1B strategic bombers of the 379th Expeditionary Wing can also carry out bombing missions in the Middle East.
Even with such a powerful military deployment, the US military does not dare to easily start a war in the Middle East, and even the US military's super nuclear-powered aircraft carrier cannot survive the high-intensity military pressure of the Iranian army.
Gone are the days when the US military relied on tens of thousands of troops to contain Middle Eastern countriesThe US military has called for a big helper, but only the strength of the Americans can be seen, and the maritime strength of most countries is quite weak, and it is no longer the multinational coalition force during the Iraq war.
In recent years, the armed forces in the Middle East have ceased to be backward armed with "millet plus rifles", equipped with a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles, and they have been reduced to zero, and the powerful regular army of the US military has almost nothing to do.
3. How China responds to changes in the Middle East.
The Middle East is not only related to China's national development and energy security, but also an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Two things have happened recently that are important!
First, the 45th escort group of the Chinese Navy, which was escorting ships in the Gulf of Aden, stayed at the Djibouti support base for only one day, and after carrying out the necessary supplies, it quickly left for the sea to carry out its mission.
The Chinese Navy needs to be alert to military conflicts in the Middle East and be able to respond at the first time, and now the scale of our army's deployment to the Middle East is quite small, with only the 45th batch of escort formations and support bases in Djibouti.
Therefore, the 46th batch of escort squadrons should set off as soon as possible, and from the perspective of long-term development, China needs to establish a larger-scale comprehensive combat base in the Middle East to meet the needs of the long-term stationing of the navy and marines.
Second, so far, not a single Chinese ship has been subjected to armed attacks, which is the result of China's long-term peaceful operation, and it is said that a cargo ship "Yinhe" from China has sailed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and has not been attacked from land or sea, which shows that the armed forces in the Middle East do not regard China as an adversary, and they also know who is undermining peace in the Middle East.
China needs to steadily advance the peace process in the Middle East, call on all parties concerned to end wars and conflicts as soon as possible, and put the Middle East on the right track of peaceful development. Project Sword