US Site: Yemeni Operations Force NATO to Thoroughly Reassess Its Naval Doctrine

The U.S. defense-focused website The War Zone reported that recent Yemeni naval operations have compelled the United States and NATO to rethink their naval combat doctrine in light of developments in confrontations in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The site noted that the U.S. Navy has formally begun steps to develop a new ship-launched missile to replace its current upgraded Sea Sparrow — the ESSM Block 2 — following detailed military observations that highlighted the difficulty of countering complex threats combining armed drones and multi-vector missiles, which the Yemeni Armed Forces have launched with high precision against U.S. and Western destroyers and vessels.

It explained that the new program is a joint initiative between the United States and 11 NATO allies, intended to design more flexible, longer-range naval defense systems with the ability to replenish while underway, to face hypersonic missiles and armed unmanned aerial vehicles, and to close the gaps that Yemeni operations exposed in Western naval defenses.

Analysts cited in the report said Yemen has become a central actor in the Red Sea and has imposed its military equations on Western fleets, forcing NATO decision-makers to develop unprecedented new strategies and directly affecting Western defense industries, which are now racing to present urgent solutions to confront the new reality Yemen has created at sea.

The piece concluded by noting that Yemen is redrawing the maritime battlefield and that the era of unilateral dominance over the seas is waning in the face of Yemeni forces’ presence in this vital theater of struggle and sovereignty.