On Thursday, 30 May, British jets participated in a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities.
The aim of the strikes was to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which have thus far killed innocent merchant mariners from Vietnam and the Philippines, damaged several merchant ships, and sunk the bulk carrier Rubymar.
The Ministry of Deefnce said:
“Intelligence had confirmed two locations near Hudaydah as being involved with the Houthi anti-shipping attacks, with a number of buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for very long range drones, as well as surface to air weapons used to impede coalition operations to safeguard shipping in the region. Furthermore, a set of Houthi facilities at Ghulayfiqah, further south on the Yemeni coast, had also been identified as being involved in the command and control of their anti-shipping campaign.
Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s therefore conducted strikes on the target buildings at these three locations, using Paveway IV guided bombs. As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimise any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure. Conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness should also have mitigated yet further any such risks. As ever with such missions, RAF Voyager tankers provided essential air refuelling support to the Typhoons.”
The Red Sea crisis began on 19 October 2023, when the Iran-backed Ansar Allah (Houthi movement) in Yemen launched missiles and armed drones at Israel, demanding an end to the invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The Houthi movement’s militants, which oppose Yemen’s internationally recognised government, have since 2014 controlled a considerable swath of the country’s territory along the Red Sea. Shortly after the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, the Hamas-allied group began to launch missiles and drones against Israel. Houthi militants have also fired on various countries’ merchant vessels in the Red Sea, particularly in the Bab-el-Mandeb—a chokepoint of the global economy as it serves as the southern maritime gateway to the Suez Canal of Egypt. The group has declared that they consider any Israel-linked ship as a target and that they will not stop until Israel ceases its war on Hamas.
Although the Houthis said that they were targeted ships linked to Israel, the US, or Britain, the Houthis have indiscriminately attacked the ships of many nations. From October 2023 to March 2024, the Houthis attacked vessels in the Red Sea on more than sixty occasions. To avoid Houthi attacks, hundreds of commercial vessels have been rerouted to sail around South Africa.
The Houthis’ Red Sea attacks have drawn a military response from a number of countries. In January 2024, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722, condemning the Houthi attacks and affirming freedom of navigation.
The United States-led Operation Prosperity Guardian was launched to protect Red Sea shipping; the operation has included bombings of Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen and attacked Houthi vessels in the Red Sea. Since January, the US and UK have led coalition missile strikes against the Houthis, while other countries are independently patrolling the waters near Yemen.
Hi folks hope all is well.
When we hear such news, wonder if those pro Palestinian protesters would be happy to have shortages of products and goods they take for granted here if our navy and RAF didn’t intervene? We are always seen as the bad guys.
Cheers
George
The West bread the Anti-West in form of Marxism.
These are the results of Marxist teaching. Their objective always have been the total destruction of Liberal State.
Note: Liberal here have nothing to do with American designation.
I’m not saying they’re a nice bunch of people, they aren’t. But we picked sides when we backed the other guys (who, incidentally, were using proto-Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as death squads to take power in Yemen) in the early 2000s. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t respond, but I can understand why they’re firing missiles at us. That said, in my opinion, this is the perfect opportunity to be testing Paveway with wing kits in an operational setting. But I doubt the RAF shares my interest in developing a cheap solution to providing a level of precision… Read more »
Hi mate, when you state ‘wing kits for Paveway’, is that similar to those ‘ Glide bombs’ being used by Russia against Ukraine?
Yes, although in terms of quality and reliability it’d be closer to the JDAM-ER, which Ukraine are using fairly successfully. My thinking is that they add 30-60 km on to the range, depending on launch speed and altitude. They also seem to be relatively difficult to shoot down, as they’re basically a very solid steel bomb rather than a cruise missile or rocket made up of composites so shrug off proximity fragmentation somewhat better. They’re also really cheap in the grand scheme of precision guided munitions. It’s become painfully obvious that we don’t hold enough inventory of munitions, getting the… Read more »
Apparently Ukraine are using Paveway too, which might give some impetus or influence to further developments.
Oh, I hadn’t heard that- good to know! It’d be a no-brainer then, given their lack of air superiority they really need them in many ways.
Paveway has a degree of glide capability. Admittedly not as much as a JDAM for example. This can be further enhance by using a toss bombing technique. Which is where a pilot performs a zoom climb at 45 or so degrees, then releases the Paveway in an upward arc. It then follows a parabolic arc to the ground, but has the additional kinetic energy to propel it. However, unlike JDAM, you can program Paveway to strike the target at various angles to improve either the effects or to increase penetration. There was talk a while back of including an additional… Read more »
I am very much in favour of getting Spear3 into service as quickly as possible, don’t get me wrong. But I also see a place for wing kits for paveway as well, when the full capabilities of Spear 3 aren’t required, and we’re burning through our munitions. Yes, I understand that it was a UK company that came up with a kit, but it never went into proper tests. Hopefully, as you say, the RAF are looking at what’s going on in Ukraine and looking to implement something. They’ve already cleared paveway for Typhoon and they have the aircraft in… Read more »
if it’s anything like that the intention to fit with and not for it would be very welcome
That kind of thinking is what don’t make sense for me in Britain. Always justifying the other side.
They are firing at every merchant ship from almost everyone.
I also note the lack of Solidarity of progressive Unions regarding civilian sailors at risk, i heard nothing from them.
Neither protests from “Greens” regarding the use of more ship fuel to circumvent via Africa.
If it was the West doing it, we will hear no end of it from both of them.
And of course journalists don’t ask. Because they support it.
I never said that I justify their attacks, particularly against civilian shipping. What I pointed out was that we had a choice on who to back, and we chose the other guys. Who also happened to be Al Qaida. Sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two bad allies, I understand realpolitik. But we have to be allowed to review our historic choices to inform our future ones, and I personally think we should be avoiding Al Qaida-aligned forces. I also think that HMS Duncan should have the freedom to operate effectively to protect those who are put in… Read more »
stuff them they’re camel drivers and Coconut
growers , but they should have been eradicated by now
It’s not really needed for the U.K. to take part in this but it is needed to have consequences for attacking merchant ships at sea.
I’d imagine a lot of surveillance is going on to identify what is causing attacks and where from.
The sooner Israel finishes its Gaza mission the better.
Does anyone know why it is houtis that are taking the most action over the Gaza war?
Both backed by Iran, and Iran wants to stretch/test the West.
The question though is if not us, then who? Are you prepared to leave “World Policing” to the USA? Especially as it takes so long for the UN not only to make a decision, but act on it.
Watch this space when Labour, as I fear. pull the UK out of this sort of thing.
Europe, or the EU? Don’t make me laugh.
Houthis are Iran controlled basically. Just paying their support.
The Houthi’s aren’t going to stop when Israel stops. They have found a pain point and will continue to push on it.
hit them and keep hitting them.