Alarms blared on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea on Tuesday morning, warning personnel to prepare for potential flight operations against a Houthi drone that was flying over nearby ships.
That drone was ultimately deemed not to be a threat. But the incident demonstrated how the crew of the carrier are constantly on a heightened alert for incoming threats from the Iran-backed militants in Yemen, who have been routinely targeting commercial ships as well as US and coalition forces in the key waterway with missiles and drones.
On board two vessels spearheading the US response to Houthi attacks, the Eisenhower and the US destroyer the USS Gravely in the southern Red Sea, CNN gained unique access and spoke to officers, sailors as well as pilots who said the Houthi threat remains both unpredictable and unprecedented.
The US Navy is working at a frenetic pace, deploying Jets and firing missiles at a moment’s notice to try to destroy the Houthis’ weapons and infrastructure.
But after dozens of strikes over the last month against Houthi targets both over the Red Sea and inside Yemen, CNN was told that the US military still does not know exactly how much of the Houthis’ capabilities have been destroyed—or how long it will take to deter them for good.
“It’s a wicked problem set that we don’t have a lot of great fidelity on,” said Rear Admiral Marc Miguez, the commander of Carrier Strike Group Two, told CNN on Tuesday.
Unlike state actors like Iran, Russia and China that the US has prioritized for intelligence collection for years, the US was not paying close attention to the Houthis before they started regularly lobbing missiles into the Red Sea, Miguez said. So the US does not know for sure how much the Houthis have stockpiled, particularly when…
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