The U.S. Navy plans to deploy two more Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers to ensure the security of the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait off southern Yemen against threats posed by Houthi rebels armed with anti-ship missiles and warships of the Navy of Islamic Republic of Iran Army, and the Navy of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution or the Revolutionary Guards' Navy.
The two destroyers likely to be deployed to the Red Sea are the USS Laboon (DDG-58) and the USS Truxtun (DDG-103), both of which are Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.
The Pentagon said the two destroyers will patrol the opposite ends of the 2,250 km-long body of water. This deployment, however, will leave them exposed to observation and probable attack by the Iranian Navy and the fanatical Revolutionary Guards' Navy.
Currently patrolling the strait, which is the entrance to the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden, is a U.S. Navy squadron consisting of the guided missile destroyer, USS Cole (DDG-67); the USS Makin Island (LHD-8), a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship and the USS Comstock (LSD-45), a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship. Aboard the Makin Island are U.S. Marines of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).
The Makin Island's air group consists of Boeing AV-8B Harrier II single-engine ground-attack, jump jet aircraft; Bell AH-1 Cobra single engine attack helicopters; Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey multi-mission, tiltrotor aircraft and Bell UH-1Y Venom, a twin-engine, medium-sized utility helicopters.
The plan to deploy two more destroyers comes in the wake of unrelenting attacks on warships of the U.S. Navy and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting against the Houthis in the Yemeni Civil War by Houthi rebels allied with Iran.
In the latest Houthi attack, a suicide boat manned by Houthi rebels badly damaged the Royal Saudi Navy frigate Al Madinah (702), lead ship of the French-built Al-Madinah-class, off the Yemeni port of Al Hudaydah on Jan. 30, killing two sailors and wounding 39 others.