WASHINGTON — The Truman Carrier Strike Group is reportedly heading to the Red Sea, where sailors are fighting off attacks from Houthi rebels.
Despite these efforts, the Iran-backed terrorist group continues to wreak havoc on the vital trade route.
“We’ve certainly degraded their capability. There’s no doubt about that. We’ve degraded their capability. However, have we stopped them? No,” said Vice Adm. George Wikoff, head of naval efforts in the Middle East. Speech given to C.S.I.S. Last month.
Wikoff added that it is unlikely the Houthis would be affected by a military response approved by the White House.
“Our mission is to disrupt their capabilities and try to maintain some semblance of maritime order while we provide an opportunity to develop a policy against the Houthis,” he said.
While those discussions are still ongoing, Iranian proxy groups claiming to support Palestinians in Gaza have attacked more than 70 ships since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
“In fact, the Houthis, at the behest of the Iranians, recognized long ago that shipping through the Red Sea has global implications,” Brent Sadler of the Heritage Foundation told CBN News.
Sadler, the former Pentagon official, predicts this situation will continue without changes to US strategy and rules.
“Unless you break their relationship with Tehran and also launch more severe attacks against them, this situation is going to continue for quite a while, and that is indeed what has happened,” Sadler said.
Wikoff says many ships now sail the Red Sea the other way, adding about 11,000 miles to each trip.
“This is not an acceptable solution but we have seen some stabilisation, where previously we saw about 2,000 ships passing through per month, now we see about 1,000 ships passing through,” he said.
Meanwhile, naval forces are finding themselves under constant enemy fire for the first time since World War II.
“The bottom line is our Sailors are being asked to do a very difficult job, and they’re doing it better than we ever imagined,” Wikoff said.
Expensive US weapons systems are also being targeted. Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed to have shot down a $30 million drone.
“There was an MQ-9 crash in the vicinity of Yemen; it is under investigation,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed.
Sadler warns that what we are seeing in the Red Sea could also be a sign of what is to come in the Indo-Pacific if the US does not change its approach to Beijing. Taiwan is already conducting military exercises in preparation to keep vital sea lanes open in the event of a Chinese blockade.
