The Aster medium-range anti-aircraft missiles were fired 22 times in the Red Sea, announced the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu. Paris placed an order for 200 Aster missiles in January 2023 for 900 million euros, with their delivery scheduled for 2026 while the ministry intends to have them in the second quarter of 2024.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by a Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, Yemen's Houthi rebels have regularly fired on ships they consider linked to to Israel.