[News] First assessment of the European Aspides operation

(B2) One month after the start of the European operation to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the HQ of the EUNAVFOR Aspides operation drew up an initial assessment

35 merchant ships protected

Since the start of the operation, launched on February 19, European maritime and air resources deployed in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have provided “close protection of 35 merchant ships”.

Eight drones shot down

Its actions made it possible to shoot down eight drones" launched by the Houthis from their base in Yemen and "to repel three other drone attacks threatening freedom of navigation", indicated the operation's headquarters on Tuesday (March 19). A ninth drone was shot down on Wednesday (March 20) in an action worthy of... aerial chivalry, by a French navy helicopter (read: [News] A Houthi drone shot down by a French helicopter in the Red Sea. An action of aerial chivalry)

Ship escort

In addition to destroying Houthi drones, the operation's ships carry out more protective tasks, with the escort of merchant ships in the area most at risk, between the southern Red Sea, through the narrowest crossing point , the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, to the Gulf of Aden. Or vice versa. Usually, to facilitate work, merchant ships (tankers, container ships, passengers) are grouped into convoys. The Italian destroyer Caio Duilo thus assured “ the escort » of a convoy of three ships, including a ship from the Italian-Swiss company MSC, recognizable by its yellow dress along the hull.

The German frigate Hessen also accompanied a ship which had been the subject of a drone attack a few days earlier to the port of Djibouti.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)