A Houthi missile targeting the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower supercarrier landed just 200 meters from the warship this past June, an article in the October issue of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel journal by analysts from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has revealed.
“By some accounts, an [anti-ship ballistic missile] or other missile arrived at a very shallow trajectory, with minimal warning, without a chance for interception, and splash[ed] down around 200 meters from the Eisenhower,” the article said in a section analyzing the tools and capabilities at the Houthis disposal to maintain a lock on targeted ships.
“By achieving closer shadowing of target vessels…the Houthis appear to be reducing the time-in-flight limitation of their long-range strike systems (which can exceed 100 minutes for a drone flying 300 kilometers, during which time a ship can move by as much as 75 kilometers). Houthi missiles and drones may carry terminal guidance systems – certainly semi-active radar homing for anti-ship cruise missiles, also electro-optical cameras in UAVs, and possibly (though this is unconfirmed) some form of guidance system in some ASBMs as well,” the article said.
“The combination of wide-area surveillance, close-in target shadowing, and terminal guidance has allowed the Houthis to achieve some impressive feats of marksmanship, such as an apparent near-miss on a US aircraft carrier and a number of hits or very close misses by ASBMs on ships approximately 150-200 kilometers from launch points,” the piece added.
The Eisenhower near-miss was at least the second time a US warship was nearly set alight by a Houthi projectile, the article said, pointing to a previously reported January 2024 incident involving the USS Gravely guided missile destroyer.
In that episode, “an enemy missile elud[ed] two layers of defense and [was] only…intercepted by the ship’s last-line-of-defense Close-In Weapons System,” the analysis said.
US military officials, including USS Eisenhower Captain Christopher Hill have repeatedly and nonchalantly dismissed Houthi reports on the targeting of American warships, giving media press tours and providing photos and videos to show that the ships are safe and sound.
But a string of reports have pointed to the potential cracks in the US naval armada’s powerful armor, with a Military.com report from June warning that “fatigue [was] setting in” aboard the Eisenhower strike group as it waged what was described as “the most intense running sea battle since World War II.”
USS Laboon destroyer Captain Eric Blomberg hinted in an AP interview the same month about the risks Houthi missiles pose to American warships. “I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” he said. “We only have to get it wrong once. The Houthis just have to get one [missile] through.”
The Eisenhower ended its deployment in the region the same month and headed to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, replaced by the USS Theodore Roosevelt in July, and itself relieved by the USS Abraham Lincoln in September.
US media have speculated on the risks posed to US carriers by Houthi attacks. “Despite the aircraft carrier’s formidable defenses and advanced technology, the persistence of Houthi harassment has sparked debates about the vulnerability of such vessels in modern combat environments, especially when facing unconventional threats from non-state actors like the Houthis,” a piece published in the National Interest in August said.
In July, in a report entitled ‘How Many Missiles Does It Really Take To Sink A Supercarrier?’ Forbes urged cocky observers to “take a closer look at the facts before writing off the threat” posed by the Yemeni militia. “It seems highly unlikely that the Houthis will damage any US carrier. But history has repeatedly shown that defensive measures which look unbeatable on paper can fail due to human error…Confidence is justified, complacency is not. And moving even the mightiest carrier into an area where it may be attacked is not without risk,” the article stressed.
The US has spent over $22 billion on the conflict in the Middle East which began on October 7, 2023, over $2.5 billion of that on the deployment of warships and aircraft fighting the Houthis. But the campaign has yet to bear fruit, with the militia seemingly only improving the accuracy and deadliness of their arsenal over time. In July, a Houthi airplane-style drone slammed into a building just 100 meters from the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring several others. Earlier this month, Israel reported bringing down a Houthi missile over central Israel using its Arrow defenses after the projectile apparently evaded perimeter defenses.