Why is the Trump administration using the same military strategy in Yemen that its oft-criticized predecessors in the Biden administration used?
The absurdity of our age continues to be highlighted in the headlines. Sadly, it has apparently gone unnoticed by some of the highest-ranking officials of the Trump administration. Under their command, the U.S. military continues to operate as though the year is 1995—when the United States held global supremacy—instead of 2025, when it decidedly does not.
As a case in point, the U.S. Navy has had one of its vaunted Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the USS Harry S. Truman, loitering off the coast of Yemen, with the equivalent of a giant “Kick Me” sign pasted on its flight deck for the world to see.
And that is precisely what the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are trying to do.
The Houthis’ History of Aggression in the Red Sea
Last year, Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) came precariously close to the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Pentagon downplayed the incident. But it later quietly acknowledged that the Houthi missile had come within two football fields of the carrier.
Chaos again erupted last December, when a U.S. Navy E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare (EW) plane was shot down by friendly fire from a nearby guided-missile cruiser, the USS Gettysburg, over the Red Sea while it was returning to the Truman from a mission. The details of that incident remain murky, but some have speculated that the reason the crew of the Gettysburg was so trigger-happy was due to the incessant missile attacks the Houthis were subjecting the carrier battle group to.
Indeed, last summer in an interview with Business Insider, the commanding officer of a guided-missile destroyer admitted that U.S. Navy forces had not endured the kind of warfare they were encountering in the Red Sea since the Second World War. That’s a stunning acknowledgement—not least because the Houthis are the furthest thing on Earth from a near-peer rival. They are often viewed in Washington as a two-bit, third-rate Iranian-backed terrorist group hiding out in the desert. Perhaps Washington needs to reassess this image.
Why Isn’t Trump Changing Tactics Against the Houthis?
There’s never been a more significant moment than now for Washington to rethink its overall strategy against the Houthis. After all, American carriers have been proven to be vulnerable to the kind of missile and drone attacks the Houthis have launched against them.
Nor are Americans the only ones who learn lessons from war. With each attack on an American carrier, the Houthis get better at anti-ship warfare. More troublingly, the Chinese are believed to be using their advanced satellite capabilities to provide real-time, accurate targeting telemetry to the Houthis, who then use that data in their bid to sink an American aircraft carrier.
And now for the kicker. Earlier this week, the Navy announced that it lost an F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet overboard while the USS Harry S. Truman was underway in the Red Sea.
How could a thing like that happen? The Navy didn’t elaborate. But a fuller picture quickly emerged: the incident appears to have taken place after a Houthi missile penetrated the carrier’s defensive screen, forcing the carrier’s crew to take extreme evasive action. Accordingly, the Truman entered a hard turn while an aircraft was being towed on deck, accidentally throwing it overboard.
Of course, the real controversy is in the fact that a Houthi missile broke through the defensive screen in the first place. It got so close that the carrier had to make a drastic move. Just imagine if the missile had found its target! Even if the carrier wasn’t sunk, its flight deck would have been trashed, rendering it inoperable for months or—given the state of America’s shipyards—even years.
American Carriers Are Useless in Today’s Contested Battlefield
Given that the Houthis are clearly getting better at threatening American carriers, the question everyone should be asking is: why is the Trump administration using the same military strategy in Yemen that their oft-criticized predecessors in the Biden administration used?
By having carriers loiter around the Red Sea, conducting endless airstrikes that apparently have done nothing to weaken the Houthis’ ability to launch missiles at ships, Trump is following Biden’s example in displaying American impotence.
Unless American leaders stop venerating the utterly obsolete aircraft carrier, if Washington doesn’t fundamentally change its approach to fighting the Houthis—namely by stopping its reliance on carriers in this fight—then sooner or later, the Houthis will get their carrier kill. And after that day, considering how important carriers are for the United States, it will be open season on whatever remains of U.S. military power.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
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