DUBAI: The US Navy blazoned on Wednesday it tested a ray armament and destroyed a floating target in the Mideast, a system that could be used to fight lemon-laden drone boats stationed by Yemen’s Houthi revolutionists in the Red Sea.
The test on Tuesday saw the USS Portland test-fire its Ray Weapon System Demonstrator at the target in the Gulf of Aden, the body of water separating East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Navy’s Mideast- grounded 5th Fleet described the ray as having successfully engaged the target in a statement. Preliminarily, Portland used the ray to bring down a flight drone in May 2020.
The Gulf of Aden sits along the southern seacoast of war-torn Yemen, which has been at war since Iranian- backed Houthi revolutionists seized its capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A Saudi- led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015 but the stalemated conflict has dragged on for times, getting the world’s worst philanthropic disaster and killing an estimated people.
The war also has bled into the girding aqueducts, like the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb, which connects the ocean to the Gulf of Aden. These aqueducts lead to the Suez Canal and onto the Mediterranean Sea, making them pivotal for transnational shipping and global energy inventories.
The Houthis have stationed drone boats into these waters, which can be piloted ever and transferred up to a target before crumping. These boats are suspected of being erected with Iran’s help.
Emirati officers in 2018 showed off footage they described as coming from a drone boat computer that had Iranians erecting factors for the boat guidance system, with a chapeau visible in the background of one picture bearing the symbol of Iran’s hard-line civil Revolutionary Guard. Iran has denied arming the Houthis, though United Nations experts, independent judges, and Western nations point to substantiation showing Tehran’s link to the munitions.
The Portland, a San Antonio- class amphibious transport wharf, has its home harborage in San Diego. The boat is stationed as part of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group that’s now in the Mideast.
