Right now, the ships of Operation Highmast – the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and her group – will be headed for the Bab-El-Mandeb chokepoint at the south end of the Red Sea. This eight nautical mile wide gap has been the focus of international attention since 19 October 2023 when the Iranian-backed Houthis started firing missiles and drones at shipping in the area out of “solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people”.
International warships have been patrolling nearby ever since, often in the thick of the hottest naval combat for many years. The US Navy in particular fired more air defence missiles in the next 18 months than they had in the previous 30 years. The Royal Navy and others have also engaged in the defensive missile battle, to no avail. Merchant shipping is still avoiding the Red Sea.
In an effort to change the situation, March saw President Trump order a surge in counter-strikes that has now cost the US more than a billion dollars in munitions, plus several MQ-9 Reaper drones shot down. The operational tempo has been such that two US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets were lost due to deck handling and landing accidents. There were also some perilously close calls as US jets were targeted by Houthi surface-to-air missiles. In a previous assault against ISIS in Somalia, the USN had already delivered the biggest carrier air strike by weight of munitions that the world has ever seen.
Make no mistake, the Prince of Wales is headed into a warzone. She’ll be well within the footprint of hostile missiles, a situation which the critics of aircraft carriers as an idea routinely claim is unsurvivable.
Right now, the ships of Operation Highmast – the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and her group – will be headed for the Bab-El-Mandeb chokepoint at the south end of the Red Sea. This eight nautical mile wide gap has been the focus of international attention since 19 October 2023 when the Iranian-backed Houthis started firing missiles and drones at shipping in the area out of “solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people”.
International warships have been patrolling nearby ever since, often in the thick of the hottest naval combat for many years. The US Navy in particular fired more air defence missiles in the next 18 months than they had in the previous 30 years. The Royal Navy and others have also engaged in the defensive missile battle, to no avail. Merchant shipping is still avoiding the Red Sea.
In an effort to change the situation, March saw President Trump order a surge in counter-strikes that has now cost the US more than a billion dollars in munitions, plus several MQ-9 Reaper drones shot down. The operational tempo has been such that two US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets were lost due to deck handling and landing accidents. There were also some perilously close calls as US jets were targeted by Houthi surface-to-air missiles. In a previous assault against ISIS in Somalia, the USN had already delivered the biggest carrier air strike by weight of munitions that the world has ever seen.
Make no mistake, the Prince of Wales is headed into a warzone. She’ll be well within the footprint of hostile missiles, a situation which the critics of aircraft carriers as an idea routinely claim is unsurvivable.