US Navy helicopters destroy three Yemeni Houthi rebel boats that were threatening shipping.

 

USS Gravely. ABC News/CENTCOM.

US Navy helicopters have destroyed three Yemeni Houthi rebel boats that were threatening a merchant vessel. ABC News. A container ship, the Hangzhou, sent a distress signal after coming under attack by four Houthi boats. The boats had gunmen that were shooting at the vessel with small arms fire and were attempting to board the ship. Two helicopters, at least one from the USS Gravely and at least one for the carrier USS Eisenhower, arrived at the scene and attempted to discourage the gunmen. After coming under fire from the pirates the helicopters engaged and destroyed three of the four boats. The Houthi government said that ten fighters were killed in the incident. The Hangzhou had come under attack yesterday as well, being hit by an unknown object. 

My Comment:

This was yet another major attack against shipping in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden area. The Houthis are really stepping up their attacks and it's only a matter of time that they succeed in sinking a ship. However, that day is not today as this attack failed pretty badly with no ship captured and three of the four Houthi boats destroyed. 

Indeed, the Houthis probably would have failed even if the US Navy hadn't arrived. Apparently the Hangzhou had a security team that was engaged with these pirates before the helicopters arrived. Depending on how well equipped and professional these guys were they could have fought back these raiders. 

The Houthis also made a pretty big mistake in attacking these helicopters, probably Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawks. Given that the attackers apparently only had small arms and nothing that could really threaten the helicopters, the right move would have been to withdraw. I don't know how heavily armed Seahawks are, but it was obviously better than what the guys in the boats had. Supposedly Seahawks have multiple machine guns that could have chewed up these boats pretty easily. Perhaps that's why the last boat survived, maybe they were smart enough to withdraw when the helicopters showed up?

I am not sure if this tactic was a good one for the Houthis. Boat attacks are going to be extremely vulnerable to helicopter attacks and unless those boats have either heavy weapons of their own or have weapons that can attack these ships directly, they are not going to accomplish much. The Houthis should probably just stick their drone and missile attacks. The fact that they even tried this makes me wonder if they are running out of those weapons. 

Speaking of running out of weapons, it sounds as if the USS Eisenhower and their task group is pulling out of the region. This is not surprising, the task force has been in the region for awhile now and probably needs to rest, rearm and recuperate. Given how intense the operations and threats have been in the region this is not a surprise. 

There are also rumors flying around on social media that the United States and allies are going to launch airstrikes against targets in Yemen. I haven't seen any traditional media reporting this so I think it's probably just a rumor. Indeed, I have said for awhile that striking the Houthis probably wouldn't accomplish much. It's pretty hard to take out a guy launching a drone swarm and even if you did, they are pretty expendable. 

However, this boat attack might be provide a better target. They had to have launched from a port and blowing it up might prevent further attacks in the future. However I am not sure how much of an impacts it would actually make. Without more knowledge of what these boats were it might not be something we could strike easily. I am guessing what we will see is more of the status quo unless something very severe happens, like a ship being destroyed...