The commander of the EU military mission in the Red Sea has warned that it does not have enough ships to confront the Yemeni Armed Forces’ ongoing maritime operations.
Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, the Greek commander of EU mission Operation Aspides – launched in February this year – warned at a confidential meeting in Brussels last week he will only have three warships at his disposal after the withdrawal of the German frigate Hessen last month, according to German news outlet Spiegel.
“This means he can no longer fulfill the mission of protecting ships from attacks by the Houthis. With this small fleet he could escort a maximum of four merchant ships per day through the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the Yemeni coast. For his mission, however, he needs at least ten warships, and air support from a drone or a maritime patrol aircraft is also necessary,” Spiegel wrote.
In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya in late April, Gryparis said, “The area has seen multiple attacks in the past months, from one-way drones, saturation attempts, complex attacks including shore, air, and sea-based assets, drones, and ballistic missiles,” adding that since “the launch of the Operation Aspides on February 19, 2024 until now, the threat level remains the same.”
The German frigate Hessen ended its combat mission in late April and withdrew back to Germany. In February, the Hessen accidentally fired at a US reaper drone after identifying it as a hostile target. The two missiles accidentally fired at the US drone missed their target and fell in the sea.
While the Hamburg frigate will serve as the Hessen’s eventual replacement, the German warship will not arrive to join the EU mission until early August. Despite an urgent appeal by the commander of Operation Aspides, only Belgium and the Netherlands have signaled that they could potentially contribute frigates to the mission.
The month of April also saw France withdraw its FREMM Alsace frigate from the area due to the unexpected threat level it faced.
“We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant. [The Yemenis] do not hesitate to use drones that fly at water level, to explode them on commercial ships, and to fire ballistic missiles,” the frigate’s commander Jerome Henry told French news outlet Le Figaro in an exclusive interview published on 11 April.
The commander of the Alsace also revealed that, after a 71-day deployment, all combat equipment was depleted.
Washington also withdrew its warship, the USS Eisenhower, in April, and Belgium announced postponing the deployment of its Louise-Marie frigate for “an indefinite” period after the ship failed a series of technical tests.
The Greek commander’s warning signifies the failure of US and European efforts to stifle Sanaa’s pro-Palestine blockade on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, Arab Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean – which was recently expanded to include the Mediterranean Sea.
Upon the launch of Operation Aspides, a Yemeni official warned the EU to “not play with fire.”
In December, the US announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, intended to confront attacks by the Yemeni armed forces against Israeli-linked ships. Yet the operation gained little traction, with very few nations offering to contribute warships and others only deploying a mere handful of staff officers.
In mid-January, the US and UK began a violent bombing campaign against Yemen, which has also failed to deter Sanaa’s maritime operations.