According to Xinhua News Agency, the British freighter "Rubimar" still sank in the waters near Yemen, on February 18, the freighter was hit by two missiles of the Houthis, in the past two weeks, the United States and the West have repeatedly declared that the freighter will not sink, we will save it,But in the end, the "Rubimar" still sank to the bottom of the sea, which also means that the escort operations of the United States and the West in the Red Sea are completely bankrupt.
British freighter "Rubimar".
The Houthis have been attacking Israeli and Western ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with civilians in the Gaza Strip in the past few months. During this period, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries formed a powerful escort alliance and carried out-for-tat and counter-diplomatic operations against the Houthis. Theoretically speaking, the quality of personnel and equipment of the United States and the West is far superior to that of the Houthis. To the embarrassment of the Americans, their escort operations were not only not foolproof, they were ineffective.
As early as the Pentagon's announcement of the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, there were considerable doubts about the effectiveness of the operation. First of all, the Western allies are divided on the issue of targeting the Houthis, not many countries are willing to follow the command of the Americans, and the European Union has since set up its own escort alliance. Second, the suicide drones and anti-ship missiles used by the Houthis are not only low-cost, but also numerous, and the anti-aircraft missiles on the United States and the West are both expensive and limited in number, and this kind of asymmetric offensive and defensive operations is simply unsustainable.
The United States assembled an "escort coalition" to end the game, and the Houthis fought back strongly.
The surface ships with the strongest air defense capability of the United States are Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with the blessing of the "Aegis" system. Under normal circumstances, in order to ensure the success rate of interception, they will launch two ship-to-air missiles at an air target in air defense operations, and the standard equipment of this type of destroyer is 96 vertical launch units, and even if all of them are loaded with "one pit and four bombs" of air defense missiles, the entire destroyer can only be loaded with 384 missiles to defend against air attacks on 192 targets.
What's more, when US destroyers carry out missions, they will also be loaded with "Tomahawk" cruise missiles and other types of missiles to launch counterattacks against enemy targets. It can be seen that the sustained firepower of a single US destroyer in air defense operations is simply not able to cope with the narrow nature of the waters around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. When the Houthi armed forces continued to attack various shore-based **, the expensive "Standard" ship-to-air missiles of the United States and the West were quickly exhausted. Before the British freighter was sunk, there were repeated incidents in which anti-aircraft missile interception failed, US destroyers had to use close-in defense guns to intercept them, and a number of Western freighters were hit.
Operation Red Sea" reduced to a joke.
In order to combat the Houthis' projection capabilities, the United States and Britain organized several rounds of air strikes on Yemen mainland, according to them, destroyed many military facilities of the Houthis, but from the performance of the MQ-9 "Reaper" drone, which the US military is most proud of, can be shot down by the Houthis, it is difficult to say how much the Houthis' combat effectiveness has been hit. An important reason for the strength of the Houthis is that they continue to obtain the best ammunition from their allies in the "Arc of Resistance".In this case, the escort operations of the United States and its Western allies will only usher in a doomed end: total bankruptcy.
Over the years, the United States has been able to maintain global hegemony and boast of an invincible navy, which can be regarded as the most important pillar. However, in this escort operation, the US Navy can be said to have lost both face and lining. In addition, in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States fully supported, but Ukraine was completely defeated, and the military strength and international reputation of the United States have fallen to the bottom after two years of tossing.
Old Biden has no way back.
What's even more ironic is that now Biden has no way back, and in order to prepare for the upcoming ***, he has to continue to increase his weight on the Russian-Ukrainian and Palestinian-Israeli issues, and they still want to prove that the US military "heavenly soldiers" can fight on multiple fronts and defeat all opponents who dare to challenge themIt's a pity that these "heavenly soldiers" can't even frighten the Houthis who throw missiles in slippers, let alone defeat Russia and "contain" China.