CDR SALAMANDER: A New Combined Task Force Builds in the Red Sea …”Prosperity Guardian” … bleh.
Piracy from the southern end of the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa has ramped up significantly over the last couple of weeks, especially over the weekend.
There are a lot of solid updates on the late-breaking tactical developments that I won’t be replicating here. If you are on Twitter/X, there are a few of our favorite accounts that are doing a great job tracking this aspect of this challenge and you really should be following; Sal Mercogliano, John Konrad, Charlie B., and numerous others. I especially like primary source information from industry, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) is invaluable in this regard. Their alerts are clicking off faster than you can track over at X/Ttitter or their webpage.
Let’s just spend some time today doing a back-of-the-cocktail napkin review of the larger things in play, but before we do this – let’s set the table on what is causing the recent spot of bother.
Iran’s proxy in the area, the “Houthi” (officially known as Ansar Allah, AKA “Supporters of God”) is a Shia Islamist rebellion organization that evolved from the Saada Governorate of Yemen in the 1990s. They have been a pest off the part of the coast of the Red Sea they control for years, with some success – but generally were not an impediment to trade on the high seas.
After the attacks from Gaza on October 7th, the Houthi decided to support their fellow Iranian proxy Hamas by starting to attack Israel with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and long-range drones. History may reveal their actual goals, but they are from just doing some supporting fires to trying to force a wider war in the area. If they can humiliate Big Satan or Little Satan along the way, all the better.
That is where the USN got involved, indirectly getting involved in the conflict by intercepting what could be heading towards Israel. That quickly progressed to going after Israeli-related shipping passing by their shores, and now it is open season.
The crews of our Arleigh Burke destroyers are doing simply a superb job and the Royal Navy and French Navy have joined the efforts.
The attacks have reached the point that it is starting to impact Suez traffic and international trade – not to mention the physical danger to shipping and the merchant mariners of dozens of nations who transit the Red Sea.
How about Operation Hangman.