News - World: The military news site Naval News has uncovered major shortcomings in the German Navy’s defensive capabilities during its participation in the European Union’s Aspides mission in the Red Sea, describing the deployment as fraught with serious operational challenges.

According to the report, the German Navy is now conducting operational assessments to draw lessons from its recent Red Sea experience, after confronting on-ground realities that exposed critical limitations in its self-defense systems, particularly against aerial and missile threats.

The report pointed out that the F125 “Baden-Württemberg”–class frigates, considered among Germany’s most advanced warships, were not deployed to high-threat zones due to their weak defensive capabilities.

Naval News further revealed that the frigate F222 Baden-Württemberg was forced to withdraw from a 2024 mission in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, returning home via the Cape of Good Hope instead of transiting the Red Sea, because it lacked effective systems to counter missile attacks.

These findings underscore Europe’s growing military fragility in the face of escalating threats in the Red Sea—an area that has witnessed increasingly sophisticated strikes against foreign naval activity. The report concludes that such developments expose the failure of Western naval deterrence policies, raising questions about the effectiveness of European and American interventions in sovereign waterways amid their evident operational vulnerabilities.

The recent European withdrawal from the Red Sea marks a significant shift in Western maritime policy amid the ongoing confrontation between Yemen and the Zionist entity. Since late 2023, the Red Sea has transformed into a major front in the regional struggle following Israel’s war on Gaza, with Yemen emerging as a central actor in challenging Western and Zionist maritime interests.

Despite the formation of multiple naval coalitions under US and European leadership, efforts to secure Israel-linked shipping routes have faltered in the face of Yemen’s expanding military capabilities and sustained blockade operations. 

This development also reflects a broader erosion of Western naval influence in one of the world’s most critical waterways, where local resistance forces have effectively redrawn the balance of power — shifting the Red Sea from a Western-controlled corridor into a sovereign Yemeni territory symbolizing the decline of external dominance in regional security affairs.