Day one of Project Freedom, the US military’s plan to get shipping moving again through the Strait of Hormuz, was a success, the top US commander in the Middle East says.
But independent analysts are more circumspect, pointing out that only two US-flagged vessels made it through the strait under US protection and scaling up the operation to restore pre-war traffic of 120 or vessels a day seems like a long shot, especially if Iran is not cooperating.
Adm. Bradley Cooper, the head of US Central Command, told reporters in a conference call Monday that the US used a combined force of destroyers, helicopters, fighter jets, drones and other assets to protect the movement of the two US ships through the strait.
Iranian cruise missiles that targeted US Navy destroyers and the merchant ships were shot down, and US helicopters sank six small Iranian boats that attempted to attack the commercial vessels, the US admiral said.
“We have defeated each and every one of those threats through the clinical application of defensive munitions,” he said.
For those two merchant ships, the operation seemed to go exactly as it was envisioned, with layered US defenses protecting ships following a route the US Navy determined was safe from mines.
Cooper said there was “a lot of enthusiasm” for Project Freedom and other ships were moving to take advantage of it.
Analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, told CNN he thinks those merchant ship numbers could soon grow to 20 to 30 a day if US protection isn’t breached.
But he and others cautioned, “Iran gets a vote in this.”
Retired US Army Lt. Gen. Karen Gibson, speaking on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” called the first day of Project Freedom a “tactical success,” but said it must be measured against that pre-war flow of 120 vessels a day.
Iran just needs to continue to present a perception of risk to keep merchant traffic to small numbers, she said, essentially keeping Hormuz all but closed.
Commercial confidence is really the center of gravity
Retired US Army Lt. Gen. Karen Gibson