Too few warships
Report: EU can no longer fulfill its protection mandate in the Red Sea
May 5, 2024, 7:17 a.m
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The EU mission “Aspides” is intended to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthi rebels. According to the media, however, there is now a risk of bottlenecks in completing this task. The reason: Apparently the troops do not have enough warships at their disposal.
According to a media report, after the withdrawal of the German frigate “Hessen”, the EU mission “Aspides” is expecting bottlenecks in the protection of merchant ships in the Red Sea. The Greek commander of the mission, Vasileios Gryparis, warned last week at a confidential meeting in Brussels that he would only have three frigates available for the coming months, the “Spiegel” reported.
According to the report, Gryparis warned that with this number of ships he could no longer fulfill the mission of protecting ships from attacks by the Houthi rebels. Specifically, he would then only be able to escort a maximum of four merchant ships per day through the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the Yemeni coast. According to “Spiegel”, the commander demanded in front of the diplomats from the EU member states that he needed at least ten warships and air support from a drone or a maritime patrol aircraft for the mission.
The German frigate “Hessen” ended its mission in the Red Sea on April 20th. According to Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Germany will take part in the EU mission in the Red Sea with the frigate “Hamburg” from the beginning of August.
According to “Spiegel”, Commander Gryparis took stock of the EU mission at the meeting. Accordingly, the warships deployed have accompanied 96 merchant ships through the Red Sea since mid-February, and twelve drones and one missile shot down by the Houthi rebels were neutralized. The commander warned that the danger from the Houthi attacks remains acute. On April 29, the Houthis succeeded for the first time in overcoming the mission’s air defenses with a swarm of drones and damaging a merchant ship.
The diplomats also discussed expanding the mandate for the EU mission. Germany has suggested that the EU warships in the Red Sea should also be used in the future to curb arms smuggling for the Houthi rebels in Yemen.