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US Navy fires laser weapon in Gulf of Aden amid drone boat risk
MEE employees
Wed, 12/15/2021 – 16:07
The US Navy introduced on Wednesday that it efficiently test-fired a laser weapon within the Gulf of Aden towards a backdrop of accelerating drone threats posed by Iran and its allies.
The check occurred on the USS Portland whereas it was travelling by means of the physique of water between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
The US Navy stated the laser “efficiently engaged” its floating goal. The Center East-based Fifth Fleet has performed related weapons assessments prior to now, and final yr used a laser to strike a drone.
Spanning from the Purple Sea and Arabian Gulf to components of the Indian Ocean, the Fifth Fleet’s space of operations has not too long ago change into awash in drone warfare.
A suspected UAV assault, which the US and its allies blamed on Iran, focused an Israeli-managed tanker off the Omani coast in July killing two crew members. Iran denied it was behind the assault.
Bomb-laden drone boats and mines have additionally been set adrift by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters in Yemen.
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The nation lies on the crossroads of a number of essential waterways, together with the Bab-el-Mandeb, an 18-mile-wide maritime chokepoint between Yemen and the Horn-of-Africa by means of which an estimated 6.2 million barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum merchandise cross every day.
Saudi Arabia warned final month that the Houthis have been utilizing remote-controlled explosive boats to disrupt worldwide delivery within the Purple Sea.
In April officers stated they destroyed a maritime drone concentrating on the Saudi Purple Sea port of Yanbu. The UAE has launched paperwork reportedly exhibiting Iranian Revolutionary Guards figures assembling part components of Houthi drone-boats.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil struggle in 2015 after Houthi Ansar Allah fighters seized management of Sanaa, the nation’s capital.
The UN has referred to as Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian disaster with an estimated 230,000 folks killed and tens of millions displaced by preventing.
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