Fending off Houthi attacks on shipping requires double the fleet, EU force says

Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower is reported to be leaving Red Sea after eight months in combat

The USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier sails in the Red Sea on June 12, 2024. AP

A European Union naval force created to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea needs to more than double in size because of escalating attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the head of the operation said.

Four EU vessels have been patrolling the waters off Yemen since February. In that time, they have provided “close assistance” to 164 ships, shot down more than a dozen unmanned aerial vehicles and destroyed four anti-ship ballistic missiles, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis said in an interview with Bloomberg.

The Houthis began attacking vessels last year to put pressure Israel and its allies over the war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have continued despite the presence of the EU ships and a US-led naval force, forcing many companies to send their ships on the much longer route around southern Africa instead of through the Suez Canal linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

Air attacks by US and UK on sites associated with Houthi operations have not deterred them but instead led to ships with links to the two countries being fired on more often.

The Yemeni militia has said it would start attacking shipping in the Mediterranean as well, although there is little evidence they can hit vessels that far away.

Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, left, and EU foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell at a meeting to discuss bloc's naval mission in the Red Sea in April. EPA

A warning by the Houthis last month that they will fire on ships owned by any company whose ships dock in Israel has increased the risk for commercial shippers, Adm Gryparis said. He was in Brussels this week to lobby for additional resources.

“We don’t have that many assets and the whole area we have to cover is enormous,” he said. “I am pressing all the member states to provide more assets.”

The militants struck the coal-carrying MV Tutor with a seaborne drone on June 12, killing a Filipino crew member. The ship sank on Thursday.

The EU mission has a defensive mandate and any increase in the size of its fleet patrolling the Red Sea would be to enable the force to increase its geographic range, rather than adopt a more confrontational stance, Adm Gryparis said.

“We don’t believe that hitting the Houthis might solve the problem,” he said. “Some other countries tried similar actions some years ago and some other countries still do, and we see that it is not contributing to the solution to the problem.”

The limited number of ships at its disposal has confined the EU's Operation Aspides to a small part of the southern Red Sea near Bab Al Mandeb, a narrow strait between Yemen and Djibouti where ships are vulnerable to attacks.

“There are daily about 40 or 50 ships going up and down the strait, so it needs a significant amount of ships to be able to provide this close protection,” Adm Gryparis said. “There are cases where we are not able to provide this close protection but we try to cope with the volume.”

He said he expected the EU to extend the operation's current mandate, which ends in February next year.

The admiral's call for reinforcement come as the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier is expected leave the Red Sea after eight months of the US Navy describes as its most intense combat since the Second World War.

The imminent departure of the aircraft carrier was reported by the independent US Naval Institute, quoting a US official

The report said a carrier operating in the Pacific would be taking the Eisenhower's place.

The closest American carrier known to be operating in Asia is the USS Theodore Roosevelt. It arrived in Busan, South Korea, on Saturday.