More than 60 warships of different sizes and tasks, from 17 different countries, are currently carrying out patrol and maritime security missions around the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The conflict with the Houthis – derived from the war in Gaza, according to the Yemeni rebels – and the resulting insecurity in naval transport routes has caused a radiation of military tension that has expanded to all those areas already mentioned. The selective bombing by British-American forces on terrorist artillery positions on Yemen's soil on January 12 was one of the clearest exponents of this tension.
The warming of this gigantic region is evident in a graphic and obvious way with the enormous concentration of multinational naval forces that have gathered there, without leaving aside the enormous activity currently being carried out by the air forces of the United States and Great Britain, especially in the Persian Gulf area.
The attacks by the Houthis beyond the Strait of Bab el Mandeb on large merchant ships destined for or stopping in Israel intensified in the middle of last December and while these attacks increased in number, the general staffs of different navies of the world assigned units to the area or multiplied those they already had, like the United States.
The objective of this reinforced patrol – also used as an operational platform for operations against land, such as the attack on Houthi bases on January 12 – is to increase maritime security at a time when large shipping companies refuse to sail the waters of the Red Sea. . To reach Europe, for example, cargo ships affected by threats from Yemeni terrorists have to go around Africa and skirt the mythical and feared Cape Horn. All of this, as has already been revealed in different studies and surveys, represents a colossal increase in costs that will impact the entire production chain up to the end user.
By far, the country that has concentrated a larger naval force, at a great distance from the next, is the United States, which has come to have two aircraft carriers in the area and its entire squadrons of escort ships. Currently, the US Navy has 24 ships in that vast region, ranging from the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, numerous frigates, logistics and supply ships and a nuclear submarine, the Florida, whose last known position less than a week ago was near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz.
The powerful Eisenhower aircraft carrier is a floating air base capable of carrying 70 to 90 aircraft, including helicopters. Among the wing group embarked on the gigantic ship are dozens of units of the sophisticated F-35 fifth-generation fighter. This aircraft carrier, like all of the nuclear-powered Nimitz class, is accompanied by a flotilla or combat group made up of four to six ships that protect it and provide logistical support.
With its deployed force, the United States not only sends the most obvious message, which is that it wants naval security to be recovered to the extent possible and act as Israel's bodyguard against enemies as powerful and declared as Iran, but also to project its almost indisputable power in the seas, even if it is thousands and thousands of kilometers from its territory.
Iran, a great ally of the Houthis and eternally at odds with the United States, also has a considerable force deployed in the area, especially considering that a good part of those waters bathe its coastline. The Islamic Republic of the Ayatollahs has deployed eight warships. One of its frigates, the modern Dena 75, is heavily armed, multiplies the number of missiles on board compared to its predecessors, and, according to the instructions of the fire control system installed, can intercept 40 targets and confront five objectives simultaneously. These are capabilities comparable to those of Western ships of a similar profile.
It is very noteworthy that there are other powers such as India, with seven ships, and China, with three, which, following their own national interests and with geopolitical agendas very different from those of the West in most cases, have wanted to be present in that gigantic maritime area.
The third place for the number of warships deployed is shared by the United Kingdom, tied in ships with India. The British, whose foreign policy and, very markedly, defense policy, is perfectly aligned with that of the Americans, are the only ones who, for the moment, have supported the offensive actions designed by the Pentagon.
In the group of countries such as South Korea, Greece, Denmark, Belgium, Sri Lanka or Indonesia, among others, with a single ship sailing in those routes today heated by international tension, there is also Spain. The Victoria frigate is part of the already historic Atalanta mission, of the European Union, to fight against piracy in the Indian Ocean. The Navy ship has not moved to the area in response to the Houthi threat but was already on patrol, like other EU ships, when the Red Sea crisis broke out.
The position of the Spanish Government, for the moment, is not to send any reinforcements to join the mission of prevention and repression of the terrorist actions of the Yemeni rebels led by the United States. Washington hoped that the Navy would join the so-called Operation Guardian of Prosperity and in the first moments assumed that this would be the case. However, the central Executive denied that it would participate.
Such a refusal remains for the moment, as does the reluctance that part of the Atalanta mission's efforts be diverted to support the North American operation. Moncloa seems willing, at most, to send liaison officers when this multinational collaboration begins.
Using old nomenclatures that were once attributed to very different and distant geographical areas, today it can be said that the area described in this report has become a true hornet's nest or swarm that some agitate with a destabilizing spirit and others consolidate, At least, the tense calm will return to normality to maritime traffic as much as possible and with it better commercial returns.
