U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin publicly announced on December 22 that 20 countries have joined the so-called "Prosperity Guardian" joint patrol operation, and on December 18, Austin announced that 10 countries had formed a joint convoy to begin joint operations in the Red Sea waters. The U.S. Navy has previously used two Aegis missile destroyers to combat in the waters off Yemen in the Red Sea, thus carrying out the mission of intercepting drones and cruise missiles launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The U.S. Navy took the lead, and other countries followed, thus creating a strong deterrent to the Yemeni Houthis, and the United States came out to escort Israel, because the Yemeni Houthis only targeted Israeli ships and Israeli-related ships.
According to the information released by the U.S. Central Command, the Yemeni Houthis launched anti-ship missiles at targets in the southern waters of the Red Sea on December 23, but did not cause damage to any targets, and the U.S. Navy's Aegis missile destroyer shot down four drones from the Yemeni Houthis, and the drones launched by the Yemeni Houthis did not cause any damage to people and property. According to publicly available information, Yemen's Houthis have launched 15 attacks on merchant ships transiting the Red Sea since October 17.
Spearheaded by the U.S. Navy and involving 20 countries, Yemen's Houthis responded through actions, underscoring the determination and strength of Yemen's Houthis to face up to the challenge. In fact, the Houthis in Yemen have seen through the so-called "Guardian of Prosperity" joint escort operation led by the United States, because only Britain and Greece really used warships to participate in the joint escort, and the rest of the countries only announced that they would join the escort, but they have their own plans, especially the European allies of the United States, including France, Italy and Spain, do not obey the command of the United States at all, so the "Guardian of Prosperity" joint escort promoted by the United States is actually "a piece of scattered sand".
In addition to the two Aegis missile destroyers, the US Navy also has the CVN 69 USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier combat deployment in the Gulf of Aden, thus trying to put pressure on the Yemeni Houthis. Judging from the actions of the Houthis in Yemen, they have seen through the essence of the bluff of the US "paper tigers", and for this reason they dare to strike at Israeli-related merchant ships in front of the US Navy's aircraft carrier strike group.
The Pentagon of the United States exaggerates the so-called 20-nation joint escort, and the reason why the United States wants to make a big show of it is because it wants other countries to share the cost of escorting Israel with the United States. In fact, the United States is already an accomplice of Israel, because Israel began a large-scale military operation in the Palestinian Gaza Strip on 7 October, which has so far led to the tragedy of more than 20,000 deaths in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.