In a video press conference on 4 January 2024 Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, US 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), gave a positive assessment of Operation ‘Prosperity Guardian’, which was launched by the US military to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea region.
Adm Cooper pointed out that “approximately 1,500 ships have safely transited the Red Sea” since 18 December 2023, when the operation was launched. He went on to say that since 18 November 2023 – the day on which the Houthis first launched their actions against shipping in the Red Sea – there had been 25 attacks on merchant ships during their passage through the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. These were successfully repelled by coalition units in the region. Eleven bomb-laden unmanned aerial vehicles, two cruise missiles and six anti-ship missiles launched by the Houthis were shot down and three small boats were sunk.
The US military assumes that 55 nations are directly or indirectly affected by the Houthis actions, “whether by the flag state, the place of production or destination of the goods, the ownership of the ship or the nationalities of the innocent seafarers or to each individual ship”.
A new threat
However, the first use of a bomb-laden unmanned surface vessel (USV) by the Houthis has resulted in a not-insignificant change in the threat situation. The incident took place on the morning of 4 January 2024, when the USV is said to have moved out of the area controlled by the Houthis and into the international shipping lane: a distance of around 15 nautical miles. According to Adm Cooper, the USV came within a few miles of the ships. “We all watched it explode,” he said, adding that “There are no more details at the moment.”
The reasons for its detonation, whether by deliberate remote detonation or a misfire, remain unclear for the time being, but the explosion had no effect on shipping or people in the area.
However, the use of such a small USV to attempt a bombing attack had prompted the need for increased surveillance measures, although precautions are complex in view of the increasingly saturated operational picture in the region.
The operation came just hours after the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning the attacks and warning the Houthis against continuing to mount them. For their part, the Houthis responded with several video sequences, which they published online on 4 January, that glorified the fighters killed in the incident on 31 December 2023, when US Navy helicopters destroyed three Houthi small boats, while invoking reprisals against the US naval forces.
The Houthi attack on the Saudi frigate Al-Madinah in January 2017 first revealed the existence of bomb-laden USVs in the Houthi arsenal. According to analysts, their components originate from Iran and are said to be assembled by the Houthis in Yemen. These could be the boats presented at the parade to mark the 9th anniversary of the revolution in Sanaa on 21 September 2023.
