The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman sails through the Mediterranean Sea on May 18, 2025, in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. Truman just ended about five months on duty in the Red Sea as part of U.S. military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. (Michael Shen/U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has left the Middle East after a deployment marked by the loss of three fighter jets and weeks of nearly constant flight operations in a U.S. bid to cripple Houthi militants in Yemen.
Truman, the destroyer USS Jason Dunham and the cruiser USS Gettysburg are now in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations as part of a routine deployment, Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a spokesman for the fleet, said in a statement Monday. The 6th Fleet AOR includes the Mediterranean Sea.
The statement did not say when Truman and the other ships left the Red Sea, which is part of the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, citing operational security.
But open-source intelligence analysts said on X that satellite imagery showed Truman and Gettysburg transiting the Suez Canal north toward the Mediterranean on Saturday. Navy images posted online showed Truman operating in the Mediterranean on Sunday.
It’s unclear whether the destroyer USS Stout, also part of the Truman Carrier Strike Group, was in the 6th Fleet area of responsibility as well. Truman’s departure leaves just a single aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, in the Middle East.
It comes nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump paused Operation Rough Rider, an aggressive air campaign aimed at stopping attacks on military and commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Last week, Vinson was operating in the Arabian Sea along with the destroyers USS Sterett and USS William Lawrence and the cruiser USS Princeton, USNI New reported May 12.
Since March 15, U.S. forces have hit more than 1,000 Houthi targets in Yemen, killing group leaders and fighters and degrading the group’s capabilities, the Pentagon said last month.
In declaring a ceasefire on May 6, Trump said the Houthis didn’t want to fight anymore and had agreed to stop attacking ships in the vital waterway.
This story will be updated.
