Now Saudi Arabia, the nation most affected by the Houthis’ threats to commercial traffic, is forming a naval coalition to restore order in the waterway. Can it be more effective in keeping the Red Sea open than the U.S. has been in protecting shipping through Hormuz? It could quickly deploy through the Suez Canal to serve as the flagship for the Red Sea operation. First would come a major intelligence-collection effort, mapping the Houthis’ operational patterns from the Bab el-Mandeb up to the central Red Sea , and tracking their missile and drone launches. Next comes establishing a centralized intelligence operation , either aboard the Anadolu or ashore at the Saudi naval base in Jeddah .