Category Archives: modern military conflict

Waving the White Duster, with shades of Fletcher Christian

Posted on by Leave a comment

Resplendent in her disruptive camouflage, the Royal Navy’s Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel, HMS Tamar (P-233), recently arrived for a visit to the remote Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands. The sole remaining British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean, some of the islands’ population of fewer than 50 people can trace roots to the mutineers of HM Armed Vessel Bounty, which they burned there in what is now known as “Bounty Bay” in 1790.

It made for great imagery, and you can see why the men of the Bounty chose the place to settle.

The Rivers, designed for maritime constabulary roles such as conducting anti-piracy, counter-terrorism, and anti-smuggling tasks– allowing more capable destroyers and frigates to be retasked– have been busy showing the flag in remote parts of the world. The class consists of the three first 1,700-ton/260-foot flight Batch I vessels (Tyne, Severn, and Mersey) and five larger and improved 2,000-ton/296-foot Batch 2 vessels (Forth, Medway, Trent, Tamar, and Spey).

With small (28 in Batch 1, 45 in Batch 2) crews, their main armament is slight, being a simple 20mm/30mm forward and a few pintle-mounted .50 cals and GPMGs. The Batch 2s also have the ability to embark a Merlin/HH-60-sized helicopter (although not hangar it), UUV and UAV dets, and a platoon-sized element of Royal Marines. 

In my opinion, this (or the RCN’s Kingston class MCDVs) would have been a better and far cheaper way for the U.S. Navy to go to scratch the LCS itch, putting all the money saved towards actual frigates, a role the LCS falls short of filling. For reference, a Batch 2 River costs about $175 million per hull, while the LCS runs $500-600 million. Oof. 

Also in Guyana and South Georgia

Anyway…

The Batch 2s have been punching above their weight class lately with HMS Trent (P224) diverted from her traditional West Indies Station Ship role hunting drugs smugglers in the Caribbean to visit Guyana “as part of the UK’s unequivocal backing to the South American nation and its territorial integrity” in its tense crisis with neighboring Venezuela.

The RN made sure to release images of Trent’s embarked Royal Marines at play, her .50 cals loaded with belts of ammo ready to go, and visiting Guyanan military personnel shown on the stern, framed by a pair of guns and the White Duster.

Subtle warning.

HMS Trent

Similarly, sistership HMS Forth (P222) is back on South Atlantic patrol after a yearlong refit. She is currently working with scientists in South Georgia, a Falkland Islands War battlefield studying bird flu there. 

HMS Forth at East Cove with RRS Sir David Attenborough

Summer in South Georgia

South Georgia wildlife enjoying the summer with HMS Forth in the distance

Closing out related news for the class, check out this video of HMS Mersey, the third River to receive a WWII-style Western Approaches camo scheme during refit at Falmouth.

Jack Frost Biting More Than Your Nose

Posted on by Leave a comment

The recently reformed (and very understrength, with only six combat battalions/squadrons compared to 12 in the 82nd ABN) 11th Airborne Divison, now nicknamed the “Arctic Angels” due to their location in Alaska, recently got some snow on their wings with a little help from the Marines.

Official caption: “Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division conducted jumps from a Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules during airborne operations at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The training was designed to ensure mission readiness in an Arctic environment.” Photos by Air Force Airman Raina Dale, and Senior Airman Julia Lebens.

Meanwhile, the COLA for Alaska is being reduced, because F the troops, especially the ones in pricy Alaska, particularly when the Army is tanking its recruitment and retention numbers, right?

This brings us to this, very valid, article:

U.S. Military Can’t Sustain Arctic Operations, ‘Let Alone Dominate,’ Experts Say

This over at The Warhorse:

“We don’t have the capability to sustain forces up there,” says Ryan Burke, an affiliate professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Center for Arctic Security and Resilience. “We don’t have the infrastructure, we don’t have the know-how, we don’t have the institutional knowledge. We don’t have any of what we need to be present, let alone to actually dominate the damn thing.”

As interest in the region grows, the military has begun to make some changes. In 2022, Eielson Air Force Base, just over 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, stood up a full complement of F-35s. Marine units now rotate through cold-weather training with their Norwegian counterparts, and during the past several years, U.S. forces have participated in trainings like Arctic Edge or Arctic Challenge, a Nordic-led joint military exercise. The military points to efforts like this as evidence of its commitment to Arctic operations.

But much of the necessary communication systems, general infrastructure, and sustained presence and training needed to understand and operate in such a complex environment has yet to materialize. The lofty visions promised in recent strategies don’t always match the realities on the ground.

“The Army has a strategy, the Navy has a strategy, the Air Force has a strategy,” Burke says. “Congratulations. We can’t do any of it.”

More here.

Big Harry Finally Saved?

Posted on by One comment

220606-N-AO868-1167 ADRIATIC SEA (June 6, 2022) The Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) transits the Adriatic Sea on June 6, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Conner Foy/Released)

The eighth Nimitz-class supercarrier and the first warship named for the WWII/Korean War-era 33rd President may have just gotten a lifeline.

USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) was originally authorized as the second USS United States on 30 June 1988 during the last few months of the Reagan administration and just 16 months before the Berlin Wall fell.

By the time she entered the fleet a decade later, the Cold War had ended, the (first) Gulf War and been fought and won, and the Lehman-Reagan-era “600 Ship Navy” was being slaughtered by the Clinton administration. At the time, it seemed unlikely that big deck carriers would ever be needed outside of things like enforcing no-fly zones over countries like Iraq or Bosnia or in shelping helicopter-borne Army light infantry to places like Haiti.

Then came Afghanistan, the second Gulf War, a drastic ramp-up in tensions with China, the invasion of Ukraine, and whatever you call the thing with the Iranian-backed Houthi in the Red Sea. Suddenly, carriers are as much in need as they ever were.

With that, while the Navy had thought seriously about getting rid of old Harry in both 2019 and again in 2021, the service has pulled the trigger on massive mid-life reconstruction– the Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH)– that would add 25 years to the ship’s lifespan.

From DOD’s Friday contract announcements:

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Newport News, Virginia, was awarded a $913,150,550 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for advanced planning and long-lead-time material procurement to prepare and make ready for the accomplishment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Refueling and Complex Overhaul. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia and is expected to be completed by June 2026. Fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $250,000,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1), (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-24-C-2106). (Awarded Jan. 25, 2024)

For an idea of just what is involved with such an effort, remember this from the horrific 69-month RCOH of Truman’s slightly older sistership USS George Washington (CVN-73, which occurred during the COVID shutdown/supply chain crisis:

“George Washington’s RCOH represents 26 million man-hours of work, that involved refitting and installing a new main mast, updating the ship’s shafts, refurbishing propellers, and modernizing aircraft launch and recovery equipment,” said Capt. Mark Johnson, manager of the PEO Aircraft Carriers In-Service Aircraft Carrier Program Office. “The work enhanced nearly every space and system on the carrier, from the hull, screws, and rudders to more than 600 tanks; thousands of valve, pumps, and piping components; electrical cables and ventilation; as well as combat and aviation support systems. Beyond the critical need to defuel and refuel the ship’s two nuclear reactors and to repair and upgrade the propulsion plant, this work touched every part of the ship—and challenged every member of the planning team and ship’s force.”

Just taking my drone boat for a walk

Posted on by One comment

Just walking around the Gulfport harbor on the weekend– back when it was 70 degrees just a week ago– and spied this, now increasingly familiar, scene: an Ocean Aero Triton Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle (AUSV), with its recycled USCG 26ft RB-S chase boat (note the red showing through on the sides) and the replica of the old Ship Island lighthouse on the west horizon. The new (post-Katrina) Coast Guard station is to the left. 

(Photo by Chris Eger)

Ocean Aero is based at the port, nestled in among the banana boat facilities, and tests its production Triton AUSVs from the harbor before packing them up for delivery.

They typically run them 2 at a time, which leaves open the possibility of drone boat races? I think they should keep that in mind. I grew up with the submarine races in Pascagoula back when Ingalls was making Sturgeon-class hunter-killers and that was a blast.

Break out the red coats

Posted on by One comment

Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of the royals of any nation, but the recent life change by Denmark’s kind of quirky 83-year-old Queen Margrethe II– who abdicated her throne after 52 years over the weekend in favor of her 55-year-old son, who is now Kong Frederik X–  left a lot of great martial pageantry that you just don’t see these days, especially in minor European powers.

The Royal Danish Army’s Guard’s Hussars squadron (Gardehusarregimentets Hesteskadron) and the Vagtkompagniet company of the 365-year-old Life Guards regiment (Den Kongelige Livgarde) turned out at Christiansborg Palace in their full parade gear including seldom-seen red coats on the normally blue/black coated footguards.

It makes for interesting images, especially with the Canadian-made C7 (M16A2) and C8 (M4A1) rifles. Remember that these two guards units aren’t paper soldiers and, besides ceremonial duties, still train as regular armored recon and infantry units, respectively, and have deployed as such in NATO and UN operations for decades– the regiment lost Guardsmen in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of note, they are using the older M/95 (1990s Diemaco C7A1) rather than the newer M/10 (Colt Canada C8 carbine, which is essentially an M4A1), presumably as the longer fixed stock M16A2 clone looks better on parade. However, note that they have slim little red dots (Aimpoint Duty RDS?) installed rather than bulky Elcans or plain iron rear peep sights. These guys look young and just out of school, but they are ready to rock if needed. Of interest, of the 300 Life Guards in the company, some 280 are 1-year conscripts drawn right from boot camp.

Note the standard use of infantry short swords, with different color sword knots for each platoon. 

Note the infantry short swords, dubbed the Livgardesabel M1854. Originally spoils of war captured from the Prussians in the First Schleswig War of 1848–1851, these brass-hilted 29-inch swords (with 24-inch blades) are carried by every Vagtkompagniet guardsman under arms. Meanwhile, the officers carry the more full-length M/50 saber.

Typically the Livgardesabel is carried in the leather next to the cartridge pouch (which presumably carries some 5.56 NATO these days), next to the bayonet scabbard for the M/95 rifle. Note the radio tucked in there as well, with the earpiece hidden easily under the big bearskin shako.

A video from the Danish Ministry of Defense includes the above and other units getting into the act.

And, since you have come this far, check out this circa 1932 footage of the Life Guards at drill and parade. Of note, they stood ready to fight the Germans in 1940 but were ordered to stand down by the king, who saw it as a waste of life.

Prosperity Guardian Goes on the Offensive (Well, Not Officially)

Posted on by Leave a comment

Statement via CENTCOM (emphasis mine):

On Jan. 11 at 2:30 a.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces, in coordination with the United Kingdom, and support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain conducted joint strikes on Houthi targets to degrade their capability to continue their illegal and reckless attacks on U.S. and international vessels and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. This multinational action targeted radar systems, air defense systems, and storage and launch sites for one way attack unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

Since Oct. 17, 2023, Iranian-backed Houthi militants have attempted to attack and harass 27 ships in international shipping lanes. These illegal incidents include attacks that have employed anti-ship ballistic missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. These strikes have no association with and are separate from Operation Prosperity Guardian, a defensive coalition of over 20 countries operating in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden.

“We hold the Houthi militants and their destabilizing Iranian sponsors responsible for the illegal, indiscriminate, and reckless attacks on international shipping that have impacted 55 nations so far, including endangering the lives of hundreds of mariners, including the United States,” said General Michael Erik Kurilla, USCENTCOM Commander. “Their illegal and dangerous actions will not be tolerated, and they will be held accountable.”

The release came with images of an F-18E making a night cat from (likely) the Ike which is deployed to the region, and what looks like a TLAM lifting off from a DDG.

The F-18E looks to be “Canyon 400” the CAG bird of the “Gunslingers” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 105, part of CVW-3 based out of NAS Oceana

For reference, Carrier Strike Group (CCSG) 2 currently includes the flagship Nimitz carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), the Tico cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), Burkes USS Gravely (DDG 107), USS Laboon (DDG 58), and USS Mason (DDG 87) of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 22, and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3 with nine embarked squadrons.

Known as the “Battle Axe,” CVW-3 dates back to the old USS Saratoga in 1928 and has an all-Rhino punch from four F-18E squadrons (VFA-32, VFA-83, VFA-105, and VFA-131).

Meanwhile, the Brits chipped in some strikes made by RAF Typhoons flying 3,200-mile round-trip sorties out of Akrotiri, Cyprus, with the combined target count reportedly being 60 sites across 16 locations by both the USN and RAF with 150 munitions employed.

The use of Typhoon is rare, as the RAF only has five squadrons and usually devotes these modern fighters to air defense (MoD image)

From the MoD statement: 

Four RAF Typhoon FGR4s, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker therefore used Paveway IV guided bombs to conduct precision strikes on two of these Houthi facilities. One was a site at Bani in north-western Yemen used to launch reconnaissance and attack drones. A number of buildings involved in drone operations were targeted by our aircraft.

The other location struck by our aircraft was the airfield at Abbs. Intelligence has shown that it has been used to launch both cruise missiles and drones over the Red Sea. Several key targets at the airfield were identified and prosecuted by our aircraft.

As for the locals, they say 73 sites were hit, with about a dozen casualties, all among their fighters, and they had been given a 2-3 hour warning before the raid. Following much smack talk and lots of public rallies in the Houthi areas, it is possible an effort may be made against the American and allied bases in nearby Djoubuti in the Horn of Africa. 

BTW, the strikes on Houthiland came within hours of the Iranian Navy seizing the Greek-owned and Marshall Islands-flagged tanker St Nikolas in the Gulf of Oman.

A Very “Greyhound Moment”

This TLAM and Rhino blitz against targets ashore in Houthiland comes two days after what has been described as a “Convoy Battle” that saw the Iranian-backed rebels launch a “complex attack” that included 18 one-way attack drones (OWA UAVs), two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile shot down by the Ike’s combined carrier group and the Royal Navy’s HMS Diamond (D34).

Sal Mercogliano – maritime historian at Campbell University– richly detailed in his What’s Going on With Shipping podcast just what that was like from the feedback he has gotten from his contacts in the region.

There is also a bit of chatter that an Iranian merchant ship loitering in the area (Behshad) is actually a floating covert Revolutionary Guard seabase that is feeding targeting information to the Houthi. Behshad has been in the Red Sea since 2021 off Eritrea’s lawless Dahlak archipelago and had arrived there to apparently relive the Saviz, another suspected Iranian spy vessel that had been mysteriously damaged in an attack that some blamed on the Israelis.

If you aren’t listening to Mercogliano’s podcast and are interested in what is going on with the Houthi naval war, you are missing out.

The Roar of the Four Lions

Posted on by Leave a comment

The modern Indian dates to 1947 although it has a lineage with the Maratha Navy and old East India Company to 1612 and then has a basis as far back as the sea-going civilizations in the region some 6,000 years back. After much WWII service as a sister to the Royal Navy, the Indian Navy today has been in the aircraft carrier business since 1957 (the Vikrant, formerly HMS Hercules) and in submarines since 1967 (the Foxtrot Kalvari).

Today, the fleet includes two large operational flattops, two dozen frigates/destroyers, another two dozen smaller escorts, and 18 subs (including Scorpènes, Kilos, and German Type 209/1500s)– well outclassing the British in terms of tonnage, torpedo tubes, and carrier aircraft (45).

The Indian Navy has 45 MiG-29KUB carrier-based multirole fighters and is looking to replace them with the French Rafale instead.

Moreover, the country plans a 175-ship force by 2035, to include another carrier.

They operate the P-8I Poseidon, MH-60R helicopters, and have Rafales on order.

Besides Harpoon and Exocet, they field the massive BrahMos anti-shipping missile.

Indian Navy destroyer INS Kolkata steams during Malabar 2020.(U.S. Navy photo by Drace Wilson)

The Indian Navy has 12 P-8Is operating with INAS 312-A out of INS Rajali (above) and with INAS 316 out of INS Hansa. They replaced old Russian Tupolev Tu-142M Bear Js and were the first overseas Posedon sales.

Last week, the Indian Navy made waves in the region by responding to the hijacking of the MV Lila Norfolk in the North Arabian Sea.

With an Indian P-8 and Predator drones shadowing the vessel after it had been boarded by suspected Somali pirates, the advanced new Kolkata-class stealth guided missile destroyer INS Chennai (D65) (9,000tons, 32 Barak 8 SAM, 16 BrahMos, 76mm OTO, 4x 533mm tt, 4 CIWS) closed to the vessel and landed Marine Commandos via her Sea King. The MARCOs sanitized the vessel, with the pirates had left, and retrieved the crew from their protected citadel/safe compartment.

The Indians have been stepping up their naval game in the region after the attack on the MV Chem Pluto in late December.

Now, India is moving to escort Indian-flagged merchant vessels through the Red Sea past Houthi-contested waters.

While not joining Operation Prosperity Guardian outright, they will at least apparently be OPG adjacent.

Freemantle, ahoy!

Posted on by Leave a comment

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the idea to keep the Japanese Combined Fleet fenced in its home waters was through investing a lot in submarines. Admiral Hart’s Asiatic Squadron, based in the Philippines, had no capital ships and just a few old cruisers and destroyers, but it did have subs– 29 of them!

As noted in IJNH:

Following his arrival as CinCAF in 1939, Hart had steadily increased the number of submarines assigned to his small fleet from six to seventeen, including the first modern fleet-type boats. As the war clouds gathered in November 1941, another squadron of twelve modern fleet boats with their submarine tender Holland sailed into Manila Bay from Pearl Harbor as reinforcements.

Likewise, the Dutch spent a bunch of guilders in buying Koloniën (“colonial”) submarines for use in barring the door to the Dutch East Indies.

Of course, events soon proved that almost nothing was enough to stop the Japanese juggernaut in December 1941-April 1942 and (almost) all of these boats soon found themselves forced to withdraw to the best friendly option available at the time— Freemantle in Western Australia.

Freemantle was a submarine hub in the West Pac during WWII, with Allied boats of all stripes including British and Dutch vessels, mixing with locals and Americans. In all, some 170 Allied subs at one time or another passed through Fremantle between 1941 and 1945.

In fact, during the war, no less than 127 American submarines operated out of Fremantle at one time or another, carrying out 353 patrols. Added to this were 10 Dutch boats and, after August 1944, an increasing number of British Pacific Fleet boats. All told the Allies mounted something like 416 submarine patrols from Fremantle during the war.

“From 1943 to 1945 Fremantle-based boats sank over 273,000 tons of enemy tankers as well as 19 destroyers, 16 frigates, 4 minesweepers, 9 submarine chasers, and 6 patrol craft.”

And, in this edition of Everything Old is New Again, an American sub-tender is headed to HMAS Stirling, just outside of Freemantle.

From Navy Times:

The Navy plans to conduct its first-ever submarine maintenance work in Australia this summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.

This step will help establish a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia in the next few years as part of the trilateral AUKUS arrangement.

And the beat goes on…

Prosperity Guardian Counts 19 (of 61) Cyclops/Vampires

Posted on by Leave a comment

231206-N-GF955-1026 U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS (Dec. 6, 2023) Sailors assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) responds to a simulated small-craft vessel during an anti-terrorism drill, Dec. 6. Carney is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau)

The latest press briefing by the Pentagon has the CENTCOM commander, VADM Brad Cooper, remarking that the U.S. Navy alone has splashed 61 incoming Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea since late October in now some 25 attacks on merchant shipping. This apparently doesn’t count drones and missiles shot down by the British RN or French fleet.

Of that number, 19 have been swatted down since Operation Prosperity Guardian kicked off on 18 December 2023, expanding “Of the 19 drones and missiles, 11 have been uncrewed aerial vehicles. There have been two cruise missiles and six anti-ship ballistic missiles.”

OPG has also zapped three small boats while a large boat-borne IED was released offshore earlier this week. 

While at least two vessels have been hit by Houthis, Cooper said that “1,500 vessels have safely transited through the Bab al-Mandab,” since OPG started with none by UAVs. Notably, Maersk Hangzhou was hit by a missile which caused no casualties. Speaking of which, the only injuries thus far are to Houthi smallboat crews, with at least 10 killed.

Nonetheless, on 2 January, both Maersk and Happag-Lloyd announced that the Red Sea route would once again be avoided moving forward.

While it hasn’t been released just what kind of missiles are being sent up from coastal batteries along the Yemeni coast, the Houthis have developed a modified version of the Iranian Quds-1 and Quds-2 cruise missiles, with Iranian assistance. Iran also has Chinese C802 and C700 series AShMs and a whole series of domestically produced variants, such as the Noor, Ghader, and Ghadir.

Many of these are set up to be very mobile– and thus hard to target.

Transporter erector launcher (TELs) for Iranian Noor/Qader missiles. The TEL can be disguised as a civilian truck. (Wiki Commons)

Carney Going Home

231019-N-GF955-1104 RED SEA (Oct. 19, 2023) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) defeats a combination of Houthi missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the Red Sea, Oct. 19. Carney is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau)

The American ship with the most documented “kills,” including 14 drones shot down in a single day (16 December), is the modernized Flight I Burke, USS Carney (DDG-64).

Before that incident, Carney had counted at least a 22-0 score on the eve of the Army-Navy game in early December.

Carney, which is headed home, just hosted VADM Cooper aboard who presented the whole crew with a CAR while some individuals picked up a NAM and the skipper a Bronze Star.

For now, the Ike carrier group is in the region with her DESRON 22 tin cans keeping watch along with the British Type 45 frigate HMS Diamond while other countries are promising a couple grey hulls as well.

With Denmark set to send a frigate to the Red Sea to take part in OPG, the Royal Danish Navy just released a video of the air defense frigate Iver Huitfeldt undergoing Fleet Operational Sea Training, preparing to fight while underway.

Since you have come this far, take a look at these two semi-related videos, featuring the Army’s new 1-3 week counter-drone school– including the use of a Smart Shooter device for M4 carbines, and a sit down with some Ukrainian soldiers who are manufacturing 3D-printed parts for reconnaissance and kamikaze drones on the cheap– which is the future of warfare as we are seeing it today.

 

Prosperity Guardian upates

Posted on by One comment

ARABIAN GULF (Dec. 5, 2023) An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter attached to the “Dusty Dogs” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 7 escorts explosive ordnance disposal technicians to conduct helicopter rope suspension drills aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG 107) in the Arabian Gulf, Dec. 5, 2023. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Janae Chambers)

The U.S.-led multinational sea control/protection of shipping operation formed in December 2023 to respond to Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, primarily in the Bab-el-Mandeb (also known as the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, names that are more apt than ever before) saw a lot of movement in the past week.

This included Denmark promising to send a frigate— likely one of its trio of new Iver Huitfeldt class air defense ships– to the region to join the OPG convoy effort. Likewise, the Greeks are sending a frigate of their own, possibly a Hydra/MEKO-200HN class vessel with limited AAW capability. That these two countries are sending grey hulls is a no-brainer as Maersk is a Danish-owned shipping company and something like 20 percent of the shipping on earth is Greek-owned in one way or another. Meanwhile, cash-strapped OPG “partners” such as Canada and Australia have elected to only send a few staff officers to the safety of Bahrain.

Current missile-slingers on OPG include the British Type 45 frigate HMS Diamond (D34), the drone ace Burke USS Carney (DDG 64), the DESRON 22 destroyers USS Laboon (DDG-58), USS Mason (DDG 87), and USS Gravely (DDG-107) from the Eisenhower strike group; as well as airpower from Ike herself which is being closely screened by the old Tico USS Philippine Sea (CG 58).

And they have been very busy.

Dec. 23: Laboon shot down four unmanned aerial drones originating from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen that were inbound to the destroyer. There were no injuries or damage in this incident. However, M/V Blaamaen, a Norwegian-flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker, reported a near miss of a Houthi one-way attack drone with no injuries or damage reported while the M/V Saibaba, a Gabon-owned, Indian-flagged crude oil tanker, reported that it was hit by a one-way attack drone with no injuries reported.

Dec. 26: Laboon and F/A-18 Super Hornets from the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, shot down twelve one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and two land attack cruise missiles in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis over 10 hours. The Liberian-flagged MSC United VIII was narrowly missed by incoming AShMs.

Dec. 28: Mason shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that was fired by the Houthis. There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries. “This is the 22nd attempted attack by Houthis on international shipping since Oct. 19,” reported CENTCOM.

Dec. 30. Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned/operated container ship Maersk Hangzhou was struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile, and when Gravely responded she splashed two more that were directed at her. In a follow-up attack the next day, four Houthi small boats bird dogged the wounded container ship and then fired crew-served and small arms weapons as close as 20m from the Danish vessel. Armed MH-60Rs from Ike and Gravely responded and sank three out of four boats, reportedly killing at least 10 Houthis.

Maersk is apparently running embarked private security teams to dissuade Yemeni helicopter and small boat teams from landing– the Maersk Hangzhou responded with small arms during the recent attacks on her. Others are taking to Automatic Identification System messages to wave a sort of “not it” white flag at the Houthi, who are apparently using such systems as an easy open-source intelligence for targeting.

And, as if the region couldn’t be any more tense, the 55-year-old Iranian Alvand-class corvette Alborz has entered the Red Sea.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »