The men and women aboard the Navy’s destroyer Carney could be forgiven for thinking they were headed for a leisurely cruise on Oct. 7, 2023, as the warship crossed the Atlantic Ocean eastward to begin its latest deployment.
But that day marked the beginning of a major upheaval for the US Navy, after Hamas militants flooded into Israel and murdered more than 1,200 people, sparking a war that continues to threaten to engulf the Middle East in its entirety. this day.
All Houthi-US Navy incidents in the Middle East (to our knowledge)
The moment that would change the Navy forever occurred aboard the Carney 12 days later, on October 19, when she became the first U.S. warship to neutralize a barrage of Houthi rebel missiles and drones backed by Iran fired from Yemen.
Such interceptions have since become a distressing, near-daily occurrence for destroyers in those waters, and the year since Oct. 19, 2023, has irrevocably changed the Navy for the foreseeable future, Navy leaders and outside analysts say .
A year ago on this day, starting at 4 p.m. local time, Carney launched an attack on Houthis that the Pentagon said was heading toward Israel, downing 15 drones and four land-attack cruise missiles in 10 hours.
Although their pre-deployment training prepared them for anything, the Carneys didn’t expect to face the Houthis in a near-daily battle to keep the claustrophobic Red Sea lanes open for trade, said Cmdr. Jeremy Robertson, the ship’s commanding officer for this cruise, told Navy Times this week.
“None of us could have really known what we were going to get ourselves into once October 7 rolled around,” he said.
Since those fateful 10 hours a year ago, the Red Sea has become the arena of the longest “direct and deliberate attacks at sea” the fleet has faced since World War II, the head of the US Navy Command said. Fleet Forces Admiral Daryl Caudle in a statement. at Navy Times.
“Although I could not have predicted the complexity and interrelationships of everything that has happened since [Oct. 19, 2023]I’m not surprised,” said Caudle, who commands the East Coast-based naval fleet.
Inside the USS Carney’s Heartbreaking and Unprecedented Deployment
“The world is currently very tense, given the wide range of power-seeking agendas between peer competitors and opportunistic regional proxies. Even the smallest spark can have serious consequences, which is why we take every situation so seriously. »
Since Carney’s first victory, the surface fleet has perfected its tactics and tuned its radars for such combat, instances where a ship’s combat information center sometimes has only seconds to detect and neutralize a Houthi attack.
Combat courses are fed back to schools and training centers, giving the Navy real-time knowledge of its combat systems and how best to use them.
Skippers also report that their crews have been galvanized by such experiences, finding meaning in their seemingly endless training during the life-and-death minutes they endure in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“It really gave our Sailors the why,” Robertson said. “Why do we train so hard, why do we do all the reps and all the sets.”
“The stage wasn’t too big, the lights weren’t too bright. They were able to establish a connection.
These successes at sea “validate our willingness to respond, the fighting spirit of our Sailors and the technological superiority of our exquisite combat systems,” Caudle said.
But despite the tactical successes and demonstrated skills, some wonder how quickly the navy burns through its munitions, sometimes to take out cheap Houthi drones, and whether a withdrawal of the missiles could ever impact a much-feared war with the China in the Western Pacific.
The Houthi threat in the Middle East also strained the Navy’s aircraft carriers, and some were dispatched to the region while others were not ready to depart, further triggering the alarm in some areas.
And while the tactical battles were won, the strategic wars were not, according to James Holmes, a retired Navy artillery officer and professor of maritime strategy at the Naval War College.
“The tacticians did their job magnificently…and the combination of sensors, fire control and weapons delivered the advertised results against a range of threats similar to those advertised. [Iran, Russia and China] field,” Holmes told Navy Times. “Taking down anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles is not an easy task, but they succeeded.”
What the Navy learns from its fight in the Red Sea
And while such successes will spill over into other maritime battlefields, the navy has so far been unable to stop the Houthis from attacking merchant ships passing through the vital economic waterway that is the Red Sea, he said.
“The failure of the mission is that the mission did not achieve its strategic objective, namely to enable merchant shipping through the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea to resume unhindered “Holmes said. “We can turn strategic failure into success when shipping companies – and the very large marine insurance companies – feel comfortable enough to start using this route again. »
A year later, the Navy is becoming more judicious in how it combats Houthi attacks, according to Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst at the Hudson Institute think tank.
Navy ships threw the “kitchen sink” on drones and missiles after the Carney’s first interception a year ago, but the fleet is increasingly adept at using electronic warfare, weapons fire and less expensive interceptors to counter such Houthi attacks, Clark said.
Questions about the sustainability of the efforts now arise, he said, noting that the Navy has in some cases used carrier-based fighter jets to shoot down Houthi drones and missiles, a costly and ineffective approach.
“The challenge going forward will be how to maintain that level of presence in the region,” Clark said. “The Pentagon may need to consider installing missile defense systems on barges or on land to [destroyers] can deploy elsewhere or return home for maintenance.
Robertson left the Carney after returning to Mayport, Fla., in May, and is now the director of the Navy’s Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training, or SWATT, passing on his hard-earned knowledge.
“It’s certainly surreal,” he said of his time commanding Carney. “I love every one of the sailors, officers and leaders I have worked with. Just a great crew. They will remember it all their lives. »
As the first anniversary of October 19 passes with no end in sight for the navy’s fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea, Caudle noted that it is difficult to predict how the conflict will end.
“While I will not speculate on how our involvement with the Houthis will culminate, I can tell you that I am extremely focused on preparation, sustainment and lethality,” he said. “We are ready for this fight, no matter how long it lasts.”
