China is watching the intensifying American naval operations against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen for lessons, including the U.S.’s use of aircraft carriers and its defense against a range of threats, as it prepares for a potential invasion of Taiwan, experts told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
Under the orders of President Donald Trump, the U.S. military has been carrying out an air and naval campaign against the Houthis across western Yemen since March 15. The Pentagon has also enhanced its force posture in the Middle East, including by re-tasking an aircraft carrier group from the Pacific.
The U.S. Navy has played a central role in the airstrikes against the Houthis through the deployment of two naval strike groups led by the aircraft carriers USS Harry S. Truman and USS Carl Vinson. The Houthis have made several attempts to strike U.S. warships in the waters near Yemen with missiles and drones.
China has threatened to take self-ruled Taiwan by force. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 requires that the United States provide defensive arms to the island while maintaining its own capability to resist any attempt to change the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo by other than peaceful means.
The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asymmetric Threats
Houthi targeting of U.S. warships have shown that drones, shore-based precision strike weapons, and innovative tactics can challenge or even neutralize more traditional and expensive naval assets, Phil Yu, a nonresident senior researcher at the Atlantic Council think tank, said.
Not only will the People’s Liberation Army Navy need to “prepare to counter such tactics, but it must also consider how Taiwan and other regional actors might adopt similar asymmetric shore-based systems to blunt Chinese maritime power projection,” Yu told Newsweek.
Like the Houthis’, Taiwan’s military capabilities are inferior to and smaller in number than those of its enemy. At Washington’s urging, Taipei has developed weapons for asymmetric warfare—cheaper and more survivable weapons systems that include missiles capable of striking China’s naval fleet, which is among the largest in the world.
“I think from the Chinese point of view, it may be most relevant to observe exactly how effective U.S. and Western capabilities are in dealing with a range of threats, including ones not previously in widespread use,” said Alex Luck, an Australia-based naval analyst.
Luck was referring to the Houthi group’s use of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as their unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles. China may be interested in observing how U.S. forces can deal with offensive capabilities that the PLA would, to some extent, employ, he told Newsweek.
Limited Magazine Depth
The U.S. military has expended a significant amount of munitions on the operation around Yemen, as well as on defending military and civilian ships in the Red Sea from the Houthi attacks, raising concerns about available weapons stockpiles to support a sustained campaign.
According to the U.S. Navy, warships and aircraft assigned to the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group used a total of 770 weapons for self-defense and pre-planned strikes during their combat operations in the Middle East from November 2023 to June 2024.
“A navy will need to improve its targeting and weaponeering, pursuing offensive solutions and should defer to low-cost tools unless absolutely necessary,” Shawn Creamer and Rich Butler, both nonresident senior researchers at the Atlantic Council, said.
In addition, a navy must be prepared to carry out actions for extended periods of time with minimal assistance by other parties, the analysts told Newsweek, adding that asymmetric foes like the Houthis require actions of a joint force to defeat, including “expeditionary land power.”
Global Military Presence
“The PLA Navy could learn the importance of overseas bases and access as a way to sustain operations far from home waters,” said Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
China currently maintains two overseas military outposts, one located in Djibouti near the Red Sea and another located in Cambodia on the South China Sea, which opened last month.
In its latest report on Chinese military power, the Pentagon said China is expanding its military reach and presence within and beyond the Western Pacific Ocean. It seeks to grow its overseas bases to allow the PLA to project and sustain military power at greater distances, the report said.
What People Are Saying
Phil Yu, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security: “The intensive and sustained dual-carrier strike group campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels offers critical insights into contemporary naval power projection, especially in contested environments shaped by asymmetric threats.”
Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “Going after a target like the Houthis requires sustained operations, and it also requires superb intelligence. Simply destroying what little infrastructure Yemen has does not accomplish much.”
Shawn Creamer and Rich Butler, nonresident senior fellows at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security: “For the time being, the U.S. appears committed to disproportionately carrying the load to maintaining open sea lines of communication [in the Red Sea]. Allowing the U.S. to carry the load to keep the commons open may serve as a distraction from shifting U.S. strategy toward the Western Hemisphere and the Indo-Pacific.”
Alex Luck, Australia-based naval analyst: “The various weapon systems used by the Houthi are, for the most part, not very sophisticated. However, the complexity of attacks including targeting techniques, combining various drones, ballistic and cruise missiles are still relevant in a notional peer to peer-conflict.”
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