To break the stalemate caused by the U.S. blockade of its country the military of Iran announced that it will restrict commercial traffic across the Red Sea, the Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Saudi Arabia had circumvented the imposition of traffic control through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran by re-routing oil through its east-west pipeline to Yanbu in the Red Sea. Some 4 to 5 million barrels per day are exported from there. The closure of the Red Sea at its southern opening will block most of that traffic.
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9 responses to “War On Iran: – Closing The Red Sea”
Iran’s military resources are almost decimated. How do you intend they are going to do that?
I wondered the same thing. Who else has DEWs? Disable or eliminate cargo ships in the Red Sea with suicide drones?
Have you noticed that the USS FORD CBG had to cut short a transit through the Red Sea due to a 30 hour “laundry fire” and withdraw from the entire theatre in the middle of a shooting war?
Have you noticed that the USS Bush CBG avoided the Red Sea entirely and sailed the long way around the Cape of Good Hope for the specific reason of avoiding hostile threats in the Red Sea in order to reach the Gulf region? (See USNI)
Have you noticed that the United States Navy fought the Yemeni Houthis for 7 months over a year ago for control of the Red Sea and failed to prevent them from interdicting traffic in that chokepoint until there was an Israeli ceasefire in the root conflicts?
Have you noticed that the ballistic missile fire hitting Tel Aviv and all of our bases in the region was never stopped? Have you noted that the known range of those systems reaches much of the Red Sea to include the Saudi oil hubs there?
How do you get from Obliterated on day 2 and 3 to mere “almost decimated” 48 days later following an air campaign for most of that time that has run down our JASSM stand-off missile stocks? I can tell you how if you are not clear. It was because we spend a lot of time bombing decoys, obsolete and mothballed aircraft and ships, police stations, hospitals, college campuses, cops directing traffic, private residences of politicians, civilian energy infrastructure, water desalination plants, railroad bridges that have since been repaired, etc.
Did you notice that when the Pakistani delegation arrived in Iran yesterday, the diplomatic aircraft was escorted by Iranian F-4 Phantom and Mig-29 fighters that Trump and CENTCOM told us were wiped out weeks ago? It was just like the time a week or so ago when the decimated and out of action air defense network took out all kinds of American aircraft over Iranian airspace. The aircraft graveyard in Isfahan does not suggest US air supremacy.
What are your questions on this block of instruction?
How long will the Houthies last without Iran’s arms support. The war department has not given me the latest intel in the Red sea if what you say is true. It is my understanding that up 70 percent of the news coming out of this region is dished out by radical islamists and communist China and Russia who all have an agenda of misinformation.
How long did they last against Saudi Arabia and the GCC States in the war that started in 2015 and had US/Israel/Egyptian backing? Much of the Yemeni weapons development and production is organic, but no one has been able to stop Iranian support in over 10 years anyway and the US Navy has been on that case the whole time.
Do you really think the USN had to rush the BUSH CBG into and early deployment to replace the failed FORD CBG only to send them the long way around Africa just because of “radical islamists”, Chicom, and Russian misinformation? Do you really want to go out on that intellectual limb?
There cannot possibly be anyone less trustworthy or credible than Donald Trump and the Hegseth War Dept. Those 2 stood side by side on camera and stated flatly the lie that the Iranians had bombed their own girl’s school and not the USN weapons officers who were remotely flying the Tomahawks and double tapped that target. The Iranians know who did it and the officers of that ship have been marked.
Going the long way around may be prudent under the circumstances……..having served on both diesel and nuke carriers I can tell you a nuke boat can do 60 knots in a dead run, I have been on them doing it. Diesels do good to do half that, so long distance is mitigated by speed. That is all…
It certainly is prudent, and only costs a few more days in the end, so why risk it. The point is that is not the traditional route to the same destination, where a carrier transiting the Med and Red Sea bound for the Indian Ocean would have been available for contingencies in route while passing close to Lebanon, Israel, Yemen, etc. With an active war ongoing in those places that involves the US, there is no logical reason to have your CBG off of Namibia while those waters are uncovered unless you are afraid of your expensive ships getting shot at and having to defend themselves with expensive and increasingly scarce interceptors.
These types of warships are increasingly vulnerable and are entering obsolescence. Ukraine, Yemen, Lebanon (2006) and Iran have all demonstrated that even nations or large subnational organizations without real navies can engage and even sink large capital ships with fairly cheap ASM. Innovative surface and subsurface drones are also making an appearance and are not beyond the reach of these 2nd and 3rd rate powers. Short of sinking or damaging them they can deter hostile warships from sea lanes and coastlines where these ships have traditionally operated to project power with relatively low risk. That is no longer the case, and the Middle East is particularly problematic given the narrow nature of the Sea’s in the region compared to the broad Atlantic and Pacific Basins. In the Persian Gulf, the threat enters the level of outright denial. The Lincoln has been held so far back from Hormuz throughout this war that her airwing needs to be refueled just to reach Iran with a bomb load. Consequently, most of the navy sorties have been against coastal targets in southeast Iran while the USAF has done the heavy lifting further inland. The last days of these expensive dinosaurs is close at hand. We cannot afford them anymore. The American People are sick of policing the planet and bombing half of it with them anyway. If we insist on keeping them in service out of Pacific War nostalgia, they will eventually be sunk with great loss of life, or be rendered useless by dryer lint laundry fires and mothballed in Bremerton.
We’re not there so we can’t ‘know.’ We have to listen to others to determine what we ‘believe.’ So, one can accept Fox News and the Trump administration or folks like Larry Johnson (former CIA analyst), Col Mcgregor, Col Davis, Prof Mearsheimer, Alistair Crooke (former MI6 & British Diplomat). The former have consistently lied to us, the latter have been there, done that, and still have sources in the military and foreign countries. Choices. We all have choices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAZdq7X98lA
No, we cannot make a logical opinion from hearsay.