New Facts about Yemen Missile Attack on USS Mason : US Ship Fired 3 Missiles to Defend Itself
►https://southfront.org/new-facts-about-yemen-missile-attack-on-uss-mason-us-ship-fired-3-missil
Three missiles were fired by the crew of the USS Mason (DDG-87) guided-missile destroyer in the Red Sea in order to defend it and the nearby USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15) from an attack of two presumed cruise missiles, fired by the Iran-backed Houthi forces from the Yemini shore, on October 9, the USNI News informational website reported, citing two defense officials.
According to the sources, the vessel was operating in international waters north of the strait of Bab el-Mandeb at the time of the attack. A single Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) and two Standard Missile-2s (SM-2s) were launched by the USS Mason in order to intercept the two missiles. The Nulka anti-ship missile decoy also was used by the ship.
As one of the defense officials told USNI News on October 10, the Mason “employed onboard defensive measures against the first suspected cruise missile, although it is unclear whether this led to the missile striking the water or whether it would have struck the water anyway.” However, it was not specified that the “defensive measure” was a missile fired from the ship.
Débat sur l’utilisation ou non de missiles anti-missiles.
Former aide to retired former-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and a naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Bryan Clark, noted that the use of both missiles by the US is “very significant.”
“It might be the first time the SM-2 used against an actual threat for which it was designed,” Clark said. “It’s definitely the first time ESSM has been used… This is obviously a huge deal.”
At the same time, other experts noted that the fact that the Pentagon is not able to say if the missiles were intercepted indicates that this event did not take place. According to them, the Pentagon would actively use this incident to promote the US Navy and the defense industries due to the fact that the system has not ever been used to intercept a target in a real incident before.
Enfin, analyse des dégâts sur le HSV Swift (cf. billet sur le sujet)