Former British Navy Commander Tom Sharp said that the operation launched by the US under the name “Guardian of Prosperity” to prevent Yemeni attacks against ships linked to Israel has failed. The joint American-British aggression operation named “Poseidon’s Archer” in January 2024 proved that “trying to disable the Houthis through kinetic strikes is like hitting smoke.”
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Sharp explained in an article published in The Telegraph that the European Union launching a separate operation named “Aspides” to not be associated with the American stance in Israel showed the West’s inability to agree on how to perform a fundamental relative mission.
He pointed out the increase in Yemeni attacks in terms of quantity and type since January, witnessing the use of modern weapons such as drones. The latest victim was the Greek flagged tanker “Sounion” is the latest victim, attacked four times on Wednesday, resulting in a fire on board.
Sharp revealed the absence of any ship from the “Guardian of Prosperity” ships within 500 miles in the Red Sea. While the US had 12 warships in service in the Red Sea, they no longer have any now, and so did Britain, which left when it withdrew the HMS Diamond ship and has no ships fit for work.
The British officer added: “The US announced yesterday that it might have to park up 17 auxiliary support ships due to crewing issues. The Western Pacific is without an aircraft carrier for the first time in years (ironically because two of them are in the Middle East area but not in the Red Sea), the latest US frigates build programme is unraveling, Virginia class submarine build rate is below what’s needed to maintain the existing fleet, and the US Coast Guard now has no working icebreakers. Nonetheless, the US could have ships in the Red Sea if it wanted to.
According to Sharp, “There can only be one conclusion: that the US has surrendered in the ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ operation. The operation did not deter the Houthis and did not reassure shipping companies, so it is better for it to go and do something else.
He considered that surrendering in the Red Sea is a significant deviation from historical American maritime thinking.
Navigation freedom, as Sharp says, “is a part of the DNA of the American navy, and now is a bad time for the world’s most powerful navy to abandon those key principles.”
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