Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) operated and controlled by Yemen’s army have become a new nightmare for US Navy forces stationed in the Red Sea and surrounding waters, a commander says.

“That’s one of the most scary scenarios, to have a bomb-laden, unmanned surface vessel that can go in pretty fast speeds,” Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, commander of US Carrier Strike Group Two, told the Associated Press. 

Miguez said the US does not have enough intelligence to cope with Yemeni USVs and that the threat could be extremely lethal in some circumstances.

“And if you’re not immediately on scene, it can get ugly extremely quick,” he told the Associated Press.

The comments come amid continued confrontation between the Yemenis and a US-led coalition of maritime forces in regional waters off Yemen.

The confrontation began in mid-October after the Yemenis started to hit ships linked to Israel in a bid to force the regime to stop its aggression against the people in Gaza.

Yemen’s attacks expanded later after the US and Britain carried out strikes from air and sea on sites hosting the Arab country’s missile and drone capabilities.  

The Yemenis said on Saturday that they had used “a large number of appropriate naval missiles” to launch accurate and direct attacks on the Britain-linked oil ship Pollux in the Red Sea.

The US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed the attacks by the Yemenis late on Friday on Pollux, described as a Panamanian-flagged, Denmark-owned, Panamanian-registered vessel.

The US State Department also said the ship had loaded oil from Russia and was due to discharge in India in late February.

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