What the US has learned from Red Sea conflicts – and what it means for China
'The past 15 months in the Red Sea have provided the [US] Navy with a real-world stress test of its systems, platforms and people', including 'taking down hundreds of missiles and drones' from Yemen's Houthi rebels since November 2023, defence news website The War Zone (TWZ) reported on Tuesday.
The group, which says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, has announced plans to halt the attacks, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
TWZ quoted active and retired US military officers as saying that the Red Sea experience had sharpened their air defence tactics and been 'a prime stress test for a fleet preparing for war with China'.
The experience includes the use of US laser-guided Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II rockets by F-16 fighters to shoot down Houthi drones.
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The fact that all sides are delaying a ceasefire over a mere numbers game suggests a lack of seriousness about stopping the fighting. Amid that lack of seriousness, an already deep divide over the idea of a separate Palestinian state has deepened further. The notion of a 'two state solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back many decades, but for a long period beginning in the 1990s it took on an aura of consensus, with the main issue being one of how the Israelis and Palestinians could come to an agreement on borders, on the sensitive status of Jerusalem, and on how the Palestinian state would be governed. However, in recent years, but especially since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the very idea of a two-state solution has come into question. Previous American administrations, including that of President Joe Biden at the time of Hamas's attacks, had continued to say they were in favor of a Palestinian state even without doing anything serious to advance the idea. 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