Aspides is ‘most dangerous’ naval operation undertaken by Europe so far, analysts say
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The EU must ready itself for a long-term, dangerous mission in the Red Sea as Houthi attacks resulted this week in the first fatalities of their months-long campaign of harassment of ships travelling through the zone, one of the world’s busiest trade lanes, experts told media.
“This is the most dangerous naval operation undertaken by the EU so far,” said Alessandro Marrone, defence programme director at Italian think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali.
The death on Wednesday of three sailors, two Filipinos and one Vietnamese citizen, aboard the Barbados-flagged, Greek-operated True Confidence was a “tragedy that was unfortunately likely to happen”, said Mr Marrone.
Named Aspides, Ancient Greek for “shields”, the EU’s defensive naval mission in the Red Sea was deployed close to three weeks ago with a one-year renewable mandate.
French, German, Greek, Spanish and Italian warships are currently present in the area. A Belgian frigate is reportedly expected to depart Zeebrugge port on Sunday to join Aspides.
European warships have destroyed Houthi drones on a number of occasions, in some cases before the formal launch of the mission.
The Red Sea area is becomingly increasingly crowded, however, and there are increasing risks of potential incidents of friendly fire. On January 28, a German warship mistakenly fired at a US drone.
Also present in the maritime region is a US-led defensive mission called Prosperity Guardian, which includes up to eight frigates as well as at least a dozen Indian warships east of the Red Sea deployed to fight piracy.
The Indian navy has been assisting stricken ships and evacuated the surviving 20 True Confidence crew members earlier this week. Four suffered serious burn injuries.
The incident signalled the increasing risks associated with sailing through the Red Sea after the Rubymar cargo ship sank on February 18, days after being hit by a Houthi missile off the coast of Yemen.
An anchor dragging from the Rubymar was the likely the cause for the damage caused to undersea communication cables on Tuesday, according to the US government. The damage affected 25 per cent of the data flow through the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks, which started shortly after the start of the Gaza war in October, have caused insurance costs to soar and forced a number of vessels to take a detour via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
“Increased costs have so far been absorbed by the market but they have the potential to create disruption,” said Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, a retired Indian naval officer and director of New Delhi-based think tank the Society for Policy Studies.
“These non-state attacks pose a really complex challenge for navies around the world and merchant shipping in general.”
Military naval deployments are about “maintaining a presence and sending a signal that major powers aren’t going to allow this disruption to go beyond a certain point”.
The rapid international deployment following the Houthi attacks may have contributed to keeping the economic impact under control, said Mr Marrone. Yet he also said the awareness of the new risk undertaken by European navies is currently quite low in the continent’s capitals.
Mr Marrone estimated the total number of European personnel deployed between headquarters in Larissa, Greece, and at sea at about 1,000.
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