Danish Frigate Departs for Red Sea to Assist U.S.-Led Operation

Denmark on Monday sent a frigate to the Red Sea, where it will participate in a U.S.-led coalition to safeguard commercial traffic against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants.

The Iran-aligned Houthi have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial and navy vessels since Nov. 19, in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

In response, shipping firms have since December diverted hundreds of vessels around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, a journey that takes 10-14 days longer and is more costly than the passage via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

Denmark, home to shipping company Maersk MAERSKb.CO, is sending the 139-meter Iver Huitfeldt frigate to the area as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian formed last month to protect merchant vessels.

“If you think that the answer to the Houthis is to simply allow them to terrorize free world trade, you are on the wrong track,” Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters on board the frigate before it departed the Korsor naval base.

“That is also why we, together with the Americans and the British, are now showing responsibility and sending a signal that we will not tolerate what is happening,” the minister said.

The Houthi rebels last week fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles toward a U.S.-flagged container ship operated by Maersk.

The frigate carries U.S.-made Harpoon anti-ship missiles and ESSM surface-to-air interceptor missiles, but will not be able to defend itself or other ships against ballistic missiles, said head of the Danish Navy Command, Henrik Ryberg.