F-35C fighters from the U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA 314 squadron aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln conducted multiple strikes on Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. The F-35C stealth fighter model has longer, folding wings and, like the F/A-18, is designed to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers, allowing it to carry heavier payloads than the F-35B.
Indian Navy and Coast Guard vessels captured a pirate mother ship, complete with buccaneers and hostages, after a firefight around a 100 nautical miles off Kavaratti in Lakshadweep, in the early hours of Sunday.
“It (Suez Canal) is a really significant issue. We as military men and anybody worth their salt should be talking about it. It is a serious issue. I can see doomsday scenarios,” Admiral Stanhope, who is on a five-day visit to India, told a group of Indian journalists here.
President Barack Obama has placed the cape of a world power on India and held out the promise of global leadership, complete with matching veto.
The serial commandeering of Indian dhows by pirates in the Arabian Sea around the Gulf of Aden recently, has put the focus on the vulnerability of these vessels to hijack, especially with their flagrant flouting of guidelines, which also facilitates the endangering of other innocent shipping.
Agenda check: The US Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Gary Roughead is to arrive in New Delhi on Sunday.
A squadron of four ships is on an extensive tour of ports in the Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The ships will also conduct major exercises with Russia, the UK and France.
