23:30 / 26:04Can Prosperity Guardian Stop the Houthis?23:30 / 26:04Can Prosperity Guardian Stop the Houthis?

Commercial shipping expert and host of the "What's Going on With Shipping?" YouTube channel, Sal Mercogliano, returns to discuss whether Operation Prosperity Guardian is actually deterring the threat posed by the Houthis and keeping the sea lanes open in and around the Red Sea.

I'm getting tired of all the uninformed speculation spouted on FR about the situation in the Red Sea with the Houthis, so, here are a couple well informed people weighing in, Ward Carroll, and Sal Mercogliano.

Sal has also posted even more detailed info. on his own channel today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLFXkTUNS0&t=1629s

BTW, the answer is "not very well".* Although a lot more is going on than generally reported, we still have only 4 Arleigh-Burke destroyers in the area (with one usually off to make a supply run), and that's not nearly enough coverage of a quite large area. Plus, no air defense is 100%, and there are strong economic incentives for shippers to "go the long way" around Africa, in most instances, if there is significant risk at all.

*I will concede that outside of individual ship protection actions, the US may first be trying to knock down the chance of a "big swarm" attack, then work on reducing individual attacks. The Houthis control an area a bit under half the size of Texas, and the terrain is NOT all flat desert. So, I would expect an effort to reduce the Houthis' capabilities by, say, 90%, would take some time, and never get to 100%, if Iran can continue to resupply them. (Whack a mole.)

Sal's piece is also the 1st I've heard that we knocked that Iranian ship out of action for a few days with a cyber-attack.

Now, my opinion? This needs to be killed at the root, to get back to near normal. The likely economic fallout is quite bad otherwise.

We also have a Harrier pilot from the Bataan who shot down 7 drones B4 the Bataan returned to the Med:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgHGcOAD8RU&t=6s

One thing I’m not seeing is recent news about India’s ships in the area, at least in so far as any defenses against recent attacks goes, recent Indian Gov’t statements, etc.

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