The USS Eisenhower returned home from the Red Sea last month after what its commanding officer called the most active Navy deployment since World War II - one that presented new challenges as enemy forces take advantage of new, relatively inexpensive technology.
The aircraft carrier had F-18’s in the air nearly every day for seven months.
“We were flying six to seven days per week, sometimes launching alerts at night, anywhere between 80 and 120 to sometimes 140 sorties per day," said Marvin Scott, the commander of Carrier Wing 3. "Very, very busy operational tempo."
The Eisenhower left Norfolk days after war broke out between Israel and Hamas. By the end of 2023, the strike group moved to the Red Sea, as Houthi Rebels in Yemen began disrupting international shipping.
On Dec. 31, helicopters from the carrier shot and killed ten Houthi fighters who tried to board the merchant ship Maersk Hangzhou, according to media reports.
The carrier's F-18 Super Hornets executed more than 400 bombing missions, often targeting a significant new threat - enemy drones. The fighter jets shot down around 60 drones launched by the Iranian backed group.
Scott said one thing pilots learned is that drones are difficult to see on the plane’s radar.
In addition, they found themselves mainly trying to thwart attacks on other vessels in the area, rather than attacks on the Eisenhower itself.
“You're generally not defending yourself; you're defending someone else," Scott said. "The airwing took that very seriously."
Because of the constant threat, the crew of the carrier saw only two port calls over the nine month deployment.
Captain Chis Hill, who described the mission as “the most complex series of engagements that the Navy has seen since World War II," said it was a learning experience for the Navy.
”There's a lot of firsts that happened - getting to go up against unmanned vehicles, aerial vehicles, surface vessels, unmanned underwater vehicles,” Hill said. “Then, of course, anti-ship ballistic missiles, which we had never seen before. It was next level in terms of complexity.”
Another first: To improve morale, the carrier was equipped with ship-wide wifi for the first time. That allowed Hill to become a minor celebrity on social media. He initially just posted about Navy life - like Taco Tuesday - and posted photos of individual sailors, so their families could see they were safe.
But when inaccurate reports surfaced - first on social media, but later in some news stories - that the Houthis had successfully attacked the Eisenhower, Hill countered with video that showed the reports weren't true.
“I was already doing that before the Houthis got involved,” he said. “So I was telling the truth like I did every day. If there was a question about the integrity of the ship and whether or not there was a hole in it, all I had to do was show a video that there was not a hole in it.”
The ability of the Navy to respond quickly to social media misinformation has become an important part of the mission, according to Bryan Clark, a former naval officer who is now with the Hudson Institute.
He said inaccurate posts declaring that the Eisenhower was in flames threaten the trust in the U.S. military and U.S. allies.
“The Navy is now starting to figure out that's a piece of the job that they have to address and make sure that commanders are prepared when they get out there to do this,” Clark said.
Meanwhile, Clark said the Navy has a number of high tech weapons in the pipeline, such as lasers, to lower the cost of battling relatively cheap, low tech drones and missiles, like those provided to the Houthis by Iran. The Navy also could take advantage of off-the-shelf technology the Army is already using.
“The Navy is just catching up now to how to deal with a threat that the Army has been facing for about a decade," he said.
After the Eisenhower returned to Norfolk, the USS Theodore Roosevelt took over in the Red Sea, as the Houthis continue their campaign against international shipping.
“Given the way it's playing out right now, the U.S. just continues to play defense and doesn't really stop the threat from continuing to emerge,” Clark said.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
