Deterrence vs Escalation: Pentagon Seeks Delicate Balance in Red Sea With Multi-National Operation Prosperity Guardian
·
By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
The Pentagon’s new Red Sea security mission called Operation Prosperity Guardian will be tasked with both maintaining secure waterways in the Red Sea and also “defending” against ongoing Houthi missile attacks.
Thus far, US Navy warships have proven quite successful in the realm of tracking and intercepting or destroying both Houthi-fired drones and missiles targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea. Now, an allied group of like-minded nations, to include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and expanded US Navy and NATO support, are forming a specific new multi-national security coalition tasked with protecting the Red Sea.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters the new coalition came into existence following a special visit to the Middle East by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Among the topics discussed during the trip was the importance of freedom of navigation in international waterways and the recent threat of Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Upwards of 10 to 15 percent of global shipping transits these straits and these attacks are impacting global trade and commerce, negatively impacting the economies of nations around the world, and costing commercial shipping firms billions of dollars,” Ryder told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript.
A Delicate Balance in the Red Sea
The Pentagon appears to be striving a delicate and potentially precarious balance between simply ensuring security with a defensive posture and simultaneously placing multi-national war assets within attack range of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the Red Sea. This kind of a move seems to align with the Pentagon’s firm position that it seeks to purely deter and “not” engage with offensive firepower in response to Houthi missile and drone attacks. This approach is deliberately aimed at preventing escalation of the Israel-Hamas war into a broader regional conflict.
