US Navy struck by Yemen: USS Truman disasters expose combat strain

The US Navy has conducted an investigation into four incidents involving the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group during its deployment to the waters off Yemen, saying stress was a key factor behind the naval mishaps.

The investigation, whose results were released on Thursday, covered incidents between December 2024 and May 2025 that involved the loss of three fighter jets in the Red Sea and a collision between the Truman and a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt.

The four incidents cost the Navy more than $100 million in three lost F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, damage to the aircraft carrier, as well as injuries to multiple sailors. 

The probe found that the Truman was not only beset by Yemeni missile and drone attacks that stressed its crew but also other operational demands that put pressure on sleep-deprived personnel.

The pace of Yemen’s retaliatory operations exhausted the US sailors, it added, revealing that some of the critical systems and personnel aboard the carrier strike group were not thoroughly prepared for undertaking a combat mission.

Sailors on the Truman told investigators in February that they felt the strain of “a pressurized schedule and a culture of ‘just get it done.’”

Yemeni forces target US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman, force it to flee

Yemeni forces have carried out an operation against US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman in the Red Sea which lasted nine hours, a military spokesman says.

Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher at RAND research organization, described the mishaps with the Truman as a “wake-up call” for the US Navy about the demands of battle and the dangers of overextending ships and their crew.

“The clear message from this deployment is that the Navy is not ready to deal with the reality of extended combat,” he said, noting that the Truman “was obviously at a point where it was running at a ragged edge.”

Martin also said that the level of air threat that was coming from Yemen “was enough to be stressing,” resulting in “a lot of brittleness in the readiness and preparation.”

The Yemeni Armed Forces began a pro-Palestine campaign, attacking Israeli-linked ships as well as striking targets in the occupied territories in November 2023, a month after the Zionist regime unleashed its genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel and the US have carried out rounds of deadly airstrikes across Yemen in flagrant breach of international law and the UN Charter.

The United States ramped up its illegal aggression against Yemen by deploying aircraft carriers to the region in a bid to dissuade the country from carrying out retaliatory anti-Israel strikes.

In May, the United States and Yemen agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Oman, after repeated bombing of Yemeni cities by Washington and its allies and continued Yemeni retaliatory strikes on US forces in the region.

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