Yemeni Conflict: News #3

Confirmation, not that you hear it in th Western MSN, that significant marine traffic is still using the Red Sea. Its just that they are friendly and/or have nothing to do with Israel.

That is the problem though, the US and Israel would like to shape the narrative to suggest they are blocking international trade so they need an international coalition of military ships to deal with the problem for the entire world.

They tried to use the same logic with the Black Sea grain deal with Russia because obviously the Ukraine is keeping the world fed even if 99% of the grain they were shipping out went to European ports and European customers and the empty ships arriving to pick up that grain probably had weapons and ammo and fuel on board to support Kiev. The owners of farmland in Ukraine are almost all US companies so blocking their shipping was costing them money, just like blocking ships going to Israel is hurting their economy...

This is a 30 year old, reasonably armed, type 23 frigate that was deployed to the Baltic only 6 weeks ago. She will be used as a stand-in for the "formidable presence of" an RN destroyer and frigate already there. Difficult to believe that there is no suitable ship closer than that.

A 30 year old frigate might shoot down a fighter aircraft or a subsonic exocet type antiship missile if it spots them in time, but such ships would seriously have a difficult time with drones like Geran in numbers or more than one anti ship missile...

Considering the location the houties might simply roll Grad rocket launchers to fire a barrage of rockets at ships to deplete their air defence missiles and cannon shells and then attack with a mix of drones and anti ship missiles.

I question this "barrage". NATO AD is rather questionable in capabilities. So how did they manage to defend against a barrage when they couldn't do it before?

My guess would be that it was a few missiles and a couple of drones.

Huff, Puff, Huff, Puff. How dare you attack one of our ships and make us use up our expensive missiles, don't you know who we are?

They will seriously rely on the deterrence factor because when push comes to shove I suspect the Houthies have rather more drones and missiles and rockets than the US Navy and British Navy has SAMs.

A $2,000 drone gets shot down by a 1 million pound SAM... who is going to run out first... remember this is a blockade against Israel... this is all about economics... doing economic harm to Israel and her allies so even if all the drones and missiles and rockets get shot down it is still a win for the Houthies.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps today warned Iran-backed Houthi rebels to end their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea after British and American warships were forced to repel a huge wave of missiles and drones.

And that comment is intended to reinforce the false idea that the Houthies have completely closed that waterway to all shipping, when in actual fact it is targeting specific ships with links to Israel or shipping to or from Israel. And it is their waterway so they have every right to stop ships the way the west boards ships and steals cargo based on their rules and sanctions. The Houthies have every right to put Israel under sanctions if it so chooses and in Yemeni waters no other navy should interfere.

HMS Diamond, a £1billion Type 45 destroyer known as the jewel of the Royal Navy, shot down the targets with a barrage of Sea Viper missiles - which travel three times the speed of sound.

Funny they mention how expensive the ship it but don't mention how much each of those missiles cost.

I question this "barrage". NATO AD is rather questionable in capabilities. So how did they manage to defend against a barrage when they couldn't do it before?

To be fair, the wests Navys have much better AD than their land based equivalents... the simple fact of the matter is that in the west air power rules and air defence is neglected by their ground forces because they expect their air power to dominate and deal with the problem for them... which is why they were so exposed and vulnerable for the last three months they were in Afghanistan when their air power left 3 months early.

The Navy... US in particular but the Brits do have some nice systems was potent enough to demand the Soviets design and build their excellent anti ship missiles... which is why their land attack missiles also include ESM equipment to penetrate strong air defences... they learned that from their anti ship missiles to increase kill probability.

The houthies don't need to sink anything... every cheap drone and missile and rocket they launch is getting intercepted by a brand new super car priced missile.

If you lined up all the western SAMs and AAMs the US and UK are firing, it would be like a super mega garage showing the James Bond Cars from every movie they did.. and if you got all the missiles and rockets and drones they are intercepting and put them together in one garage sale you might be able to buy something Mr Bean would drive.

This is an economic war and the rich guys are throwing money at it like it is not theirs, I am sure Iran could replace all the drones and missiles and rockets the Houthies have fired and probably have a few they would like to actually test against the Americans because that is what they would have designed them for.

Same old Same old though... it is another American war and instead of Ukrainians lining up to fight it is the British... with friends like America... but the British and Ukrainains are fucking stupid... just like the Germans and French and other Europeans suffering for the US MIC to make money on war and Monsanto and Blackwater, making money on remaining Ukrainian mines and fields of crops...

The Deputy Foreign Minister in Sanaa responds to Blinken: We reaffirm the safety and security of navigation for all destinations except the ports of occupied Palestine.(Israel)

In other words you are not saving the world, you are just saving Israel... again... but then that was a problem the UK created in the first place.