SHIPPERS USE ARMED GUARDS TO FOIL HOUTHIS IN RED SEA
Industry successfully deter Yemeni rebel strikes by turning to tactics that thwarted Somali pirates
Commercial ships with armed guards on board using anti-piracy tactics are deterring Yemeni rebel attacks in the Red Sea, analysts have told The National.
Using methods developed to counter Somalian piracy, several vessels are carrying armed security personnel and using intelligence provided by the US-led naval task force to combat the Houthis, an Iranbacked militant group that has disrupted and attacked trade vessels passing through the Red Sea area in recent weeks.
Operation Prosperity Guardian was created to co-ordinate task force warships and shepherd commercial ships through waters where a surge in Houthi attacks has been reported since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict in October.
With the task force present, 90 per cent of regular traffic is passing through the area with only shipping companies such as Maersk taking the much longer route around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.
Prosperity Guardian comprises warships from the US, the UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Norway.
“It offers a defensive umbrella, as do other assets in the region which are helping to mitigate the Houthi threat,” John Stawpert of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), told The National. “I can’t go into detail but there are measures that are being taken by shipping lines to mitigate those threats.”
He said that several boats were now carrying “extra security personnel”, some of whom are armed.
“This is a legacy from Somali piracy where armed guards were used with reasonable frequency because they did have a deterrent effect,” Mr Stawpert said. “If the ship is especially vulnerable, armed guards might be considered and that’s the issue in the case of the southern Red Sea.”
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the Red Sea shipping crisis has not been escalated by plans to send another warship to the region.
Mr Shapps told MPs that HMS Richmond, a Type 23 frigate, is going to the Gulf to relieve British vessels there.
The UK has sent the Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond and HMS Lancaster, another Type 23, to protect container ships from Houthi assaults.
“The Richmond is actually sailing to the region because both Diamond and Lancaster are already there and eventually will need to be swapped out,” he said.
“So it is not an escalation in terms, but I do want to repeat that we will not tolerate trade being impacted globally in the manner in which the Houthis are currently impacting it. It will have ramifications on everybody’s bills and the flow of free trade and goods and it must come to a halt.”
Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy commander, believes that if “two ex US marines with AK47s” had been on board the Galaxy Leader, they would have prevented its hijacking by Houthi fighters using a helicopter in November.
Small arms might also be able to defeat the newly emerging surface drone attacks, “but basically, they’ve gone back to the piracy rules of citadels and armed guards on the upper deck”, he said.
However, the former warship captain warned that given the Houthis are armed with cruise and ballistic missiles as well as suicide drones, these presented a threat that civilian ships could not mitigate. About half a dozen warships from the
US, Britain, Greece and Denmark are now patrolling designated areas in the Red Sea to escort shipping.
“Prosperity Guardian is co-ordinating the fighting architecture of the warships who are all on the same circuit, whether air defence or command and control,” said Mr Sharpe. “But it is still in its early stages with a lot of work needed to decide who’s looking after which ships.”
Mr Stawpert said there was “still an awful lot of trade going through the Red Sea” because the task force was intercepting attacks. On December 31, 10 Houthis were killed and three of their fast boats sunk after they fired on a US helicopter which acted as a significant deterrent.
Andrew Mitchell, Britain’s Minister for Development and Africa, did not specify if the UK would attack the silos from which the Houthis launched their missiles against shipping vessels, when asked in the House of Commons .
“We will not accept the fettering of international rights of navigation,” he told MPs. While the ICS did not have a position on whether Houthi missile and radar sites should be targeted in Yemen, Mr Mitchell said the tactic worked well before. “Striking the attackers at source certainly in Somalia had an effect on their ability to operate,” he said.
“That was one of the key tripwires in reversing the trend of Somali attacks.”
However, Mr Sharpe suggested that the Houthis “are getting too much power and influence out of this for their own good” and will potentially increase attacks unless the Iranians tell them not to or the US launches strikes against them.
“But the US has had every possible excuse and opportunity to do so for months yet nothing has happened,” he said.
About half a dozen warships from the US, Britain, Greece and Denmark are patrolling areas of the Red Sea