Navy
Navy downs 4 drones targeting ship in Red Sea
Stars and Stripes
March 28, 2024
U.S. sailors man a .50 caliber machine gun as the guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon prepares to transit the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea on Jan. 9, 2024. (Alice Husted/U.S. Navy)
A U.S. Navy warship downed four long-range aerial drones launched early Wednesday from Yemen, apparently targeting the ship itself, according to U.S. Central Command.
The four drones launched by Houthi militants were “engaged and destroyed” between 2 a.m. and 2:20 a.m. local time, according to a news release from Central Command that day.
The ship, which the command did not identify, downed the unmanned vehicles in self-defense, the release states. It did not state whether the drones were armed. Central Command reported no injuries or damages to U.S. or coalition crews or ships.
Emails and phone calls to Central Command, based in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday from Stars and Stripes were not immediately returned.
This is not the first time the Houthis have targeted a U.S. Navy vessel. The destroyer USS Laboon was unsuccessfully targeted March 12 by a close-range ballistic missile. The Laboon is one of the group accompanying the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea to stem Houthi attacks.
In January, Houthi missiles targeted the destroyers USS Gravely in the Red Sea and USS Carney in the Gulf of Aden. Both missiles were shot down by the destroyers.
Beginning this year, U.S. and U.K. forces in the Red Sea have struck the Iranian-back Houthis at military targets in areas the group controls in Yemen and at missiles and drones launched at shipping in the Red Sea, a vital commercial waterway.
The Houthis have claimed they act in solidarity with Palestinians under attack by Israeli forces in Gaza. The Houthi attacks have caused some global shippers to divert their cargo carriers to longer routes to avoid the area.