In recent years, the United States military has shifted its focus away from the Middle East, placing greater emphasis on the Indo-Pacific, as China continues to expand its influence in the region and beyond. However, it would be incorrect to suggest that even with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly four years ago, Washington has turned away from the Middle East.
Moreover, for the past year and a half, the United States Navy has dramatically enhanced its presence in response to Israel’s conflict with the Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza, which Tehran and other regional proxies have supported. The Yemeni-based Houthi militants, who are also greatly aided by the Islamic Republic, began carrying out missile and drone strikes against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in support of Hamas.
Intense Combat for a Carrier
For much of the past 18 months, the U.S. Navy has been engaged in the most intense combat operations since World War II, confronting the Houthis. However, the service has engaged other targets in the region.
It was reported this week that on February 1, the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) launched twenty-seven of its Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet multirole fighters as part of a coordinated airstrike on Islamic State operatives in Somalia.
The attacks were carried out in collaboration with the federal government in Somalia, defense officials speaking on a condition of anonymity confirmed to the Navy Times.
It was the largest maritime strike in U.S. Navy aviation history in terms of bomb tonnage, with sixteen of the aircraft dropping approximately 124,000 pounds of ordnance on Islamic State targets in under two minutes. The strike was also unique in that it differed from those conducted in past operations in that it was carried out by a single air wing, instead of involving multiple aircraft carriers and air wings.
“The joint airstrikes targeted senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a series of cave complexes approximately 50 miles southeast of Bosaso,” U.S. Africa Command said in a February 11 statement. “The command’s current assessment is that approximately 14 ISIS-Somalia operatives were killed and no civilians were harmed.”
Among those reported to be killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an ISIS recruiter and operations leader who led efforts to deploy jihadists into the U.S. and Europe.
CVN-75 departed Naval Station Norfolk last September and, after taking part in NATO operations in the North Sea and the Arctic region, arrived in the Red Sea in December to provide combat support against the Iranian-backed Houthi militants. It has carried out air strikes on more than 1,000 Houthi targets, including those aimed at taking out senior officials.
However, beyond the intense combat operations, the deployment hasn’t been remotely uneventful.
The carrier also lost three Super Hornets, with the first shot down in a friendly fire incident just weeks after arriving in the region, while two F/A-18s were lost in just the past month, including one that fell off the ship in late April while the warship was maneuvering to avoid incoming aerial threats. The second Super Hornet was lost after a failed landing, which forced the pilot and weapons system officer to eject.
USS Harry S. Truman also collided with a Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt. Though the damage was minor, the carrier underwent emergency repairs at Souda Bay in Crete. The ship’s commanding officer was subsequently relieved of duty.
CVN-75 has since returned to Norfolk and is undergoing routine maintenance. The next scheduled deployment has not been announced.
LCS Now Has A Mission
Just as one of the U.S. Navy’s largest warships has returned home, one of its far smaller vessels is now in the Middle East. The Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Canberra (LCS-30) arrived at Naval Support Activity Bahrain last week, marking the first deployment of one of the class of small surface vessels to the region, according to a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (CENCOM) announcement.
USS Canberra is now on its maiden deployment. It is the first Independence-class LCS variant to be deployed to the region, and the first LCS to deploy with a mine countermeasures mission package, an integrated suite of unmanned maritime systems and sensors developed to locate, identify, and destroy mines while increasing the ship’s standoff distance from the threat.
LCS-30 departed San Diego in March. The four warships will replace the U.S. Navy’s Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships that have operated forward in the region for decades. This will provide a mission for the small vessels that have largely been seen as a failed design for the service, notably after lawmakers canceled funding for the multi-mission modules.
Several LCS from both the Independence-class and the Freedom-class have already been retired years ahead of schedule. The mine countermeasures mission package has provided a mission for the former variants.
