Rome Moves Ahead

On September 17, 2026, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said Rome would not wait indefinitely for the EU’s EUNAVFOR Aspides mission to decide how to protect Italian commercial shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb.

Italy ordered its military leadership to prepare options for guaranteeing the passage of Italian vessels, including potentially placing Italian naval assets under national command.

THE ESCORT

On September 18, the Italian frigate Carlo Bergamini, operating under Aspides, escorted the Italian merchant vessel Jolly Oro northbound through Bab el-Mandeb.

Rome was therefore already moving from statements to direct maritime protection of Italian shipping.

Then Came the Strike

During the night of September 17–18, King Fahd Air Base at Ta’if, Saudi Arabia, came under multiple attacks.

Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto confirmed on September 18 that an Italian F-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon stationed at the base was hit. No Italian personnel were injured.

Attribution

Italian and European reporting attributed the attack to Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthi) forces, describing the assault as involving missiles and drones. The strike demonstrated that Italian military assets deployed deep inside Saudi Arabia were within the reach of Yemeni forces.

The Strategic Message

The sequence matters.

As Rome moves to expand military protection for its shipping around Bab el-Mandeb, an Italian combat aircraft has been struck at a Saudi airbase by an attack attributed to Ansar Allah.

This exposes the central vulnerability of the European strategy:

protecting maritime commerce increasingly means exposing European warships, aircraft and bases to direct retaliation.

The Red Sea is No Longer a one-way Military Corridor

European powers may still possess superior conventional platforms, but Yemen has demonstrated the ability to impose costs across a much wider battlespace.

The more Rome militarizes the corridor, the more Italian assets become part of the target set.

The strategic question is therefore no longer whether Italy can send warships into the Red Sea.

It is whether Italy can do so without turning every ship, aircraft and military base in the region into another potential point of confrontation.