News - Middle East: The Red Sea is now free of any US destroyers, following Yemeni military operations that have expelled all American aircraft carriers and warships.

For the first time in decades—during which the United States maintained dominance over the Red Sea and surrounding region—the US Naval Institute’s website USNI News revealed a complete absence of US destroyers in the Red Sea.

The site reported that as of last week, no US destroyers remain in the area.

It described the Yemeni Armed Forces’ entry into a new phase of maritime escalation against ships linked to the Zionist entity as “the most dangerous escalation since the start of Yemen’s naval attacks in November 2023.”

It noted that since last week, Washington no longer maintains any direct military presence in the Red Sea, reflecting a clear decline in America’s deterrence capability.

The report highlighted previous operations—such as the sinking of the Eternity C and True Confidence (likely referencing Magic Seas)—as clear indicators of a qualitative shift in Yemen’s naval and operational performance.

It confirmed that the ship Eternity C, which was targeted and sunk by the Yemeni Navy, received no military assistance from US or allied forces despite a 16-hour battle. Instead, the rescue was carried out by another commercial vessel, exposing the total absence of US naval forces, which once dominated the Red Sea with destroyers, frigates, and warships.

Citing prominent analysts, including Afshon Ostovar, the report noted that the absence of US ships gives Yemenis a more permissive environment to operate and enhances their ability to carry out painful attacks without fear of direct deterrence. Other experts stated that Yemeni forces have become bolder and are acting with full strategic awareness of the international messages their operations send.

The report warned that Yemeni attacks have gone beyond disrupting Zionist shipping—they have evolved into an advanced training model that improves Yemen’s naval warfare capabilities in real-world conditions and tests the boundaries of international response.

It emphasized that the Yemenis are not necessarily targeting every ship, but only enough to preserve the credibility of their deterrence. It also stated that Yemen is fully prepared to bear the consequences, as it has already demonstrated in the face of previous US and Israeli airstrikes.

The US Naval Institute’s site concluded that the Yemeni Navy now holds the initiative in the Red Sea amid an ineffective American fleet and a fractured international response. Yemen is redrawing the maps of maritime navigation and sovereignty from the gateway of Gaza, while the world stands paralyzed in the face of this emerging geopolitical shift that is now asserting itself over key global maritime routes.

This US acknowledgment underscores America's loss of hope in regaining control over the Red Sea, after Yemen imposed its own equations and enforced them through deterrent actions that removed Washington from the battlefront as early as May.

The absence of US destroyers from the Red Sea also reveals a shift in American military tactics, which had dominated the region for decades. This comes as a response to new rules of engagement imposed by the Yemeni Armed Forces over nearly two years of confrontation with US aircraft carriers and warships, including attacks on vessels that violated the Zionist navigation ban.