Royal Navy Carrier Heads "East of Suez"

 

Early on May 24, ships of the HMS Prince of Wales carrier strike group began a southerly transit of the Suez Canal. Although CSG 25 flagship HMS Prince of Wales (R09) was not spotted, HMS Dauntless (D33), Canadian HMCS Ville de Quebec (F332), Spanish ESPS Mendez Nunez (F104), Royal Norwegian Navy Nansen Class frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen (F311) and Norwegian logistics vessel HNoMS Maud (A530) were seen in the northern reaches of the canal by @MT_Anderson early in the day. The complete CSG is now likely to be through the Canal. 

@MT_Anderson spotted the CSG on imagery passing through the mid-Canal Great Bitter Lake, and also identified that the CSG was accompanied by two US Navy Arleigh Burke destroyers, one of which could be USS Truxtun (D103). The presence with the CSG of a US Navy presence is politically useful, as the Houthis are in an agreed ceasefire with the United States, and the Houthis are unlikely to be able to identify individual units of the CSG.

At about the same time the USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) carrier strike group sailed westwards through the Straits of Gibraltar and out of the Mediterranean, homeward bound.

Now that the military operation against the Houthis is over, the CSG 25 commander has the choice of making directly for the Bab el Mandeb and clearing the Red Sea. But the timetable for such a move would be predictable. Instead he may wish for a period to conduct maritime security operations in the central Red Sea, the area from which the USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) mounted its air campaign against targets in Yemen. An exit southwards from the Red Sea would then become less predictable.

HMS Prince of Wales has on board two F-35B squadrons (809 Naval Air Squadron and 617 Squadron RAF), as well as Wildcat and Merlin surveillance helicopters, with Chinooks to lift the Royal Marines onboard.