The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman sails in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on April 4, 2025. (U.S. Navy)

WASHINGTON – The USS Harry S. Truman was ordered to stay in the Red Sea for another week, extending its deployment to continue fighting Houthi attacks, a U.S. defense official confirmed Friday.

The order for the aircraft carrier strike group to remain in the Middle East was handed down Thursday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The one-week extension will keep two carriers in the region for now. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson, which was operating in the Pacific, was ordered to sail to the Middle East, extending its deployment by three months.

The Truman has been deployed for more than seven months, departing Sept. 23, 2024, from Naval Station Norfolk, Va. The ship entered the Red Sea on Dec. 14 to defend against Houthi militant threats to shipping in the strategic waterway.

The Truman and its strike group have been part of American forces striking more than 1,000 Houthi targets in Yemen as part of a campaign that began in March to stop attacks by the militants on the shipping lanes of the Red Sea. Since March 15, strikes conducted by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, have killed Houthi fighters and leaders and degraded their capabilities, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Tuesday in a statement to mark the first 100 days of the Defense Department during President Donald Trump’s second administration.

Adm. Jim Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, briefly touted the Truman’s success in the Red Sea during a keynote speech this week at the Modern Day Marine expo in Washington D.C.

“The Harry S. Truman strike group has been crushing it – crushing it. I want to make sure when they come back, they feel that pride in their work,” Kilby said as he appeared to struggle to withhold tears.

The aircraft carrier has made other headlines in recent months for its involvement in three incidents — the loss of two fighter jets and a collision with a merchant ship.

A sailor was injured this week when a fighter jet and a towing tractor on the Truman fell overboard. Officials have said the crew lost control of the F/A-18E Super Hornet as the aircraft carrier made a “hard turn” while the jet was being towed in the hangar bay.

Additionally, two Navy aviators had to be rescued in December after the fighter jet that they were flying was shot down in an apparent “friendly fire” incident. The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, part of the Truman strike group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18 Super Hornet as it was flying off the carrier. The jet was responding to incoming one-way aerial attack drones and anti-ship cruise missiles threatening U.S. forces in the Red Sea.

The Truman and merchant ship collided Feb. 12 while operating near Egypt’s Port Said. The carrier sustained damage to a line handling space, its fantail and a platform above a storage space. The exterior walls of two storage rooms and a maintenance space also were included in initial damage assessments.

Repairs and a thorough evaluation of Truman’s hull, which was penetrated well above the waterline on its right back end, required a week stay at Souda Bay. Those repairs included removing damaged pieces of metal and installing weatherproofing bulkheads, which are interior vertical walls that form compartments in a ship.

The incidents are being investigated, and the ship’s commanding officer, Capt. Dave Snowden, was fired a little more than one week after the cargo ship collision.