US destroyer well-known for ‘self-defense strikes’ on Yemen redeploys to Saudi coast as Pentagon prepares extra purely defensive belongings

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Nitze, armed with surface-to-air and Tomahawk cruise missiles, has been redeployed off the northeast coast of Saudi Arabia, as a part of US effort to ‘plug the holes’ in its ally’s air defenses.

Below the pretext of a “dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression,” the Pentagon introduced the deployment of extra troops and different navy belongings to the Persian Gulf. Actual particulars are nonetheless being labored out, however the deployment will likely be “restricted” and purely “defensive” in nature, US navy brass promised.

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Within the meantime, one guided missile destroyer has already been redeployed to northern Persian Gulf to ‘plug the holes’ in Saudi Arabia’s air defenses, based on US media reviews. Geared up with Aegis radar and surface-to-air missiles, USS Nitze is healthier identified not for its air protection capabilities – however for a ‘self-defense’ Tomahawk strike on Yemen.

In a uncommon act of direct US navy involvement within the Saudi-led Yemen battle, again in 2016 USS Nitze carried out a collection of strikes supposedly focusing on “radar websites” – within the identify of defending the “freedom of navigation.” Again then Washington accused Iran-backed Houthi rebels of launching a number of missiles at an American warship (inflicting no casualties or injury). After all, all of the targets of the ‘self-defense’ assault had been positioned “in distant areas, the place there was little danger of civilian casualties or collateral injury,” the Obama-era Pentagon claimed on the time.

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The Trump administration additionally vowed to guard the “freedom of navigation” within the strategic Strait of Hormuz and past, and has lengthy been gathering a coalition of the keen to confront Iran. Nevertheless, following a collection of botched oil tanker assaults (which the US pinned on Tehran) and reciprocal vessel seizures in summer time, solely the UK volunteered to hitch the anti-Iran flotilla (Australia too, however someday subsequent yr). Later in August, Bahrain – which hosts the US Navy’s fifth Fleet – agreed to take part, after the Central Command chief paid the King a go to. Solely the latest assault that briefly knocked out 50% of Saudi oil manufacturing (inflicting no casualties or long-term injury) satisfied Riyadh and Abu Dhabi it was time to volunteer.

The September 14 incident certainly turned a humiliation for the US since its pricey air protection programs failed to guard Saudi oil services from drones and missiles. So now Washington is speeding to bolster the ally’s safety, although Saudi Arabia already has “probably the most highly effective air protection system within the area that gives full radar protection,” based on high-ranking Russian navy supply.

Whereas Houthi rebels claimed duty for the sabotage – and promised extra assaults except Saudi Arabia and UAE halt their battle in Yemen – Riyadh refuses to imagine that they’ve such functionality. Saudis insist that Iran most undoubtedly had a hand within the raid which they declare got here “from the north” and caught air their protection items off guard.

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