Australia to send military personnel to help protect Red Sea shipping but no warship

Australia to send 11 military personnel to support US-led mission in Red Sea, but no warship or plane.

Australia will send 11 military personnel to support a U.S. led mission to protect cargo shipping in the Red Sea, but it will not send a warship or plane, the Defence Minister said on December 21.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said, “Australia’s military needs to keep focussed on the Pacific region.”

The United States announced this week that several nations are creating a force to protect commerecial shipping from attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

Mr. Marles said 11 military personnel will be sent in January to Operation Prosperity Guardian’s headquarters in Bahrain, where five Australians are already posted.

“We won’t be sending a ship or a plane,” hs told Sky News television. “That said, we will be almost tripling our contribution to the combined maritime force.”

“We need to be really clear around our strategic focus, and our strategic focus is our region: the northeast Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Pacific,” Mr. Marles added. The U.S. and its allies are concerned by China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

Australia is one of the United States’ closest military allies. The U.S. Congress last week passed legislation allowing the sale of Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia under a security pact that includes Britain.