Óscar Ruiz. Migration expert and international analyst/Escudo Digital
Spanish Navy’s frigate ‘Canarias’ (F-86) set sail last Thursday, January 15, bound for the Indian Ocean to join Operation Atalanta, promoted by the European Union and whose main objective is to prevent acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
The Canarias frigate (famous for being the protagonist in the Alakrana tuna crisis in 2009) is the most up-to-date of the Santa María class, it is also equipped with a helicopter and a drone belonging to their respective squadrons, and also embarks an Infantry team of the Navy, which assumes security and boarding duties, will take over from the frigate Victoria on the 20th in Greece.
In addition, Spain has hosted the EU Headquarters in the Cadiz city of Rota since March 29, 2019 with around one hundred soldiers of 19 different nationalities.
But the situation in those seas has been evolving dangerously since the Houthi attacks from Yemen on merchant ships (and now also on North American and English warships mainly) began as “revenge” for the Israeli attack on Hamas members in the Gaza Strip. Loop. This insecurity in those parts has meant that Spanish warships that are going to transit or patrol through that region have to be reinforced, reinforcing in this case with aerial anti-drone systems that are undoubtedly one of the greatest threats that can be found. any ship that transits there.
It is the first time that specific anti-drone defense systems have been installed on Spanish ships, and surely this will not be the last time it happens. As the war between Russia and Ukraine is demonstrating, and also the collateral skirmishes that are occurring from Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip (attacks by pro-Iranian militias on American bases in Iraq, attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea from Yemen by the Houthi rebels, Hezbollah…) the use of unmanned aerial drones is meaning a before and after in current conflicts, and is an easy and cheap way for state and non-state actors to inflict damage important to strong and powerful armies.
Soon we will have more information about current protection systems from attacks by unmanned aerial drones, and especially the systems that are currently being developed (laser?) to eliminate these devices as safely as possible and avoid an attack against ships. Spanish, either by the Houthis, or even by non-state actors from Somalia itself.
Large weapons systems projects for ships are being temporarily paralyzed and reconsidering whether to invest much more money in investing in unmanned anti-drone systems instead of other types of defensive systems that are much more expensive and perhaps less useful than drone attacks, without also forgetting the possibility of attack with surface maritime drones and unmanned underwater drones that are also making their way in different current war conflicts.
