We continue to lack a credible, public explanation about why the USS Gettysburg fired surface-to-air missiles at two F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea on Dec. 21. The pilot and weapons systems officer ejected safely from the first targeted jet, with minor injuries to one officer. The second SM-2 failed to affect the following Super Hornet, which landed safely.
While the media have extensively covered this costly mishap, there has been less attention to the Houthis‘ role in it. In June, Navy leaders reported to the Associated Press that these waters are providing “the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.” The key problem centers on the attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles that the Houthis have been firing since November 2023.
In response to questions about the Gettysburg incident, U.S. Central Command refused to provide this Washington Examiner contributor with additional information. But Wolf-Christian Paes, senior fellow for armed conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told me that “the intensity of attacks on Western warships is far greater than what is being publicly discussed.” Paes said that the fog of war, the propensity for human error, and the sheer quantity of weapons the Houthis are launching add to the complexity of the situation.
Paes said the Gettysburg mishap was not the first such occurrence in this conflict. He mentioned that the German navy frigate Hessen fired two anti-air missiles on a U.S. drone over the Red Sea last February. The drone lacked a transponder signal identifying it as friendly. Further, a recent IISS study found that the number of ships transiting the Red Sea each week “has decreased by roughly half” between November 2023 and November 2024. Although “most attacks missed or did little damage,” the study found that the Houthis have sunk two ships and killed four sailors. According to the IISS, the Houthis have targeted more than 300 ships in the Arabian and Red Seas since their campaign began. Paes said that it is “probably just a matter of time until a ship gets seriously hit.”
One major problem the IISS report identifies is that the United States and its allies “have not seriously degraded the capacity of the Houthis to launch attacks, nor their ability to resupply their arsenals.” New to that arsenal, and adding another layer of difficulty for the U.S. and its allies, is the Houthis’ anti-ship ballistic missile capability. Because of ballistic weapons’ angle of entry and shorter warning window, “the air defense controllers basically need to be on even higher alert,” Paes reported, “because you only have a couple of seconds to respond.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, hearkened back to 2018, when Iran’s “chief terrorist Qassem Soleimani threatened that the Red Sea could be set ablaze. That threat was sadly not taken seriously,” Taleblu told the Washington Examiner. “In the ensuing years, particularly during the ceasefire in Yemen, the Islamic Republic equipped the Houthis with long-range strike capabilities that some states don’t even have.”
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Taleblu added that “the inability of the U.S., U.K., Israel, and even the EU, to turn off Houthi firepower in the Red Sea despite strikes and an international maritime coalition has led to tensions rising.” He said those tensions could “easily contribute to accidents for the forces operating” in the corridor.
Put simply, resolving this conflict should be foremost on President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of The Afghanistan Project, which takes a deep dive into the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.