USS Carney shoots down drones, responds to ballistic missile attack on commercial vessel

The USS Carney shot down at least three Houthi drones headed in the ship’s direction in the southern Red Sea on Sunday and responded to a distress call from a civilian commercial vessel that was fired upon by a ballistic missile, a US defense official said.

The drones were part of four attacks against three separate commercial vessels launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, US Central Command said in a statement Sunday evening. It’s unclear whether the USS Carney was a target of the drones.

At roughly 9:15 a.m. local time, the Carney “detected an anti-ship ballistic missile attack fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the M/V Unity Explorer,” US Central Command said. The missile landed in the ship’s vicinity; the Carney — an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer deployed as part of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group — was patrolling in the Red Sea at the time.

The Unity Explorer is a Bahamas flagged, UK owned and operated bulk cargo ship, according to CENTCOM.

A few hours later at 12 p.m. local time, the Carney “destroyed” one Houthi drone while in the southern Red Sea, the defense official said. According to CENTCOM’s release, the drone “was headed toward Carney although its specific target is not clear.”

At roughly the same time, the Unity Explorer was struck by a missile fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. The Carney responded to the distress call, and while assisting, detected another inbound unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and destroyed it with “no damage or injuries on the Carney or Unity Explorer.”

The Unity Explorer did, however, report “minor damage” from the ballistic missile strike, CENTCOM’s release said.

Two other commercial vessels also were attacked on Sunday, according to CENTCOM. At roughly 3:30 p.m. local time, M/V Number 9, a Panamanian flagged,…