Failed, extended aggression on Yemen costs US Billions: Politico

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Politico
8 Aug 2024 22:37
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Politico has revealed some of the outstanding costs accumulated by the US Navy during 9-month of naval confrontation in the Red Sea.

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The flight deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as seen in a photograph released by the US Navy, in the South China Sea, on July 4, 2024. (AP)

The United States naval and aerial campaign in the Red Sea has become the most sustained military campaign by American forces since coalition forces launched attacks on ISIS in Iraq and Syria between 2016-2019, Politico reported.

US forces have launched nearly 800 missiles and seven aerial onslaughts on Yemen since November 2023, deploying a Carrier Strike Group and naval pieces to protect Israeli interests in the region.

The newspaper said that the emerging battle in the Red Sea has become the most expansive and enduring US military operation currently underway, which risks "chewing through munition" that the Pentagon would rather have available for a potential war with China in the Pacific.

Carrier Strike Group 12 extended its stay twice during the nine-month period in the Red Sea, where US forces fired over 135 Tomahawk land attack missiles, which cost between $2 million to $4 million per missile, resulting in a total expenditure ranging from at least $270 million to over $540 million.

US standard missiles used to destroy inexpensive attack drones also cost the US millions of dollars to procure, as Politico reports that 155 standard missiles of various types have been used in the same period. F-18 aircraft deployed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower fired 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-surface weapons.

US Navy readies to defend criminal Israeli regime again

According to Politico, the anticipated Iranian response to "Israel's" assassination of martyr Haniyeh, would see reliance on allies in Lebanon and Yemen, which would put deployed US ships in both regions "in the middle of the fight."

In fact, the last Iranian strike on Israeli assets on April 14 this year saw US ships and aircraft lead a Western-Arab coalition force attempting to mitigate the effects of the attack on the Israeli regime.

The USS Carney destroyer launched several high-cost anti-ballistic missile interceptors at Iranian missiles from the eastern Mediterranean. The Carney has also been active in the Red Sea, downing Yemeni drones heading to southern occupied Palestine at the early stages of the war on Gaza.

American military mobilization in the Red Sea, Gulf, and the Mediterranean has been an essential part of efforts to secure the occupation airspace, especially in the south. Yet, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have managed to discover the cracks in Israeli air defense coverage and have successfully exploited them on multiple occasions.

YAF's support to Palestine steadfast

Vice Admiral, George Wikoff, commander of Naval Forces Central Command, said that the Yemeni Ansar Allah Movement is well armed and has consistent supply lines, "and are looking for a reason to use it."

The YAF has been steadfast in support of Palestine, nearly cutting off all supply routes for the Israeli occupation through the Red Sea. Yemenis have launched a strong naval and aerial campaign in a show of proactive support to the Palestinian people, who are undergoing a blatant Israeli-executed genocide.

This naval campaign has forced the US to deploy multiple warships in the Red Sea, including the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 12, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Attempting to protect every Israeli-affiliated merchant vessel in the Red Sea has proven to be both difficult and costly. The coalition that the US hoped to create in the region slowly deteriorated and failed to meet its expectations.

Officials warn of extended US Navy deployment

The extended deployments "will impact [deployment] decisions two years from now, three years from now" across the globe, Wikoff said. These warships have seen the extended deployment of thousands of troops in the region's waters nearly 12,000 km away from home.

Heightened regional tensions, due to a series of Israeli crimes, risk aggravating pressure on the Navy's sailors and hardware, as Carrier Strike Group 3 abandons the the Indo-Pacific to reinforce US military presence in West Asia.

Representative Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Seapower panel, said that the extended operations of the US Navy will necessitate that lawmakers raise the Pentagon budget.

"I think it’s clear that … we’re going to have to come to grips with either going up higher with the topline," he said, adding that the deployments are "stressing" the US Navy.

Representative Mike Waltz, who chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, says that the US is "burning readiness to the tune of tens of billions of dollars for what really amounts to a ragtag bunch of terrorists that are Iran proxies."

Waltz sees the current strategy as unsustainable and says that "Iran is the core of the issue."

The US is running through munitions in areas of operation in West Asia to often combat low-cost drones and missiles, failing on multiple occasions to protect targets from the Axis of Resistance's fire. This strategy is expected to continue, as two carrier strike groups and a number of warships sail to the aforementioned areas of confrontation.