US warships barely keep up with Yemeni attacks: Navy commander
The Yemeni army poses a threat unseen by the US Navy since World War II, according to the commander of the USS Carney and others
The commander of Washington’s USS Carney warship and other crewmembers described to CBS News in an interview on 30 June their experience in dealing with Yemeni attacks on southern Israel during the onset of the war in Gaza.
“We started getting indications that there was possibly some sort of attack coming from the south towards Israel,” said one of the lieutenants, Dennis Morral.
“I think it was anywhere from 25 to 35 UAVs and land attack cruise missiles had been launched, and some of them were headed up the Red Sea. We picked up the very first one-way attack UAV on our system approximately 60 or 70 miles away from us,” said Commander Jeremy Robertson.
The USS Carney intercepted several missiles and drones that came within its range. CBS News describes the interceptions as “the American shots fired in defense of Israel.”
“Whether or not they would have actually made it to Israel is unknown, but they certainly were a long way from home, and there were certainly a lot of them,” Robertson added.
When asked if any US navy warship had ever fought a battle like this before, the commander responded, “Not since World War II. It’s been a really long time.”
“You're looking at something that's coming at you at Mach 5, Mach 6. The watch standers have anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds to engage,” Robertson said, referring to the speed at which the Yemeni projectiles were fired.
He also said that million-dollar missiles were fired to intercept drones worth a few thousand each.
“By the time the Carney headed home [in May after a seven-month voyage], the Red Sea was still not safe,” CBS News wrote.
The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government launched its first attack against Israel on 19 October, eleven days after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. Several Yemeni cruise missiles and drones were fired toward Israel, and the US Department of Defense said at the time that it intercepted eight drones and three missiles.
The second Yemeni attack was launched on 27 October, and the third on 31 October. The Yemeni army released its first official statement after the third attack.
“Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic and winged missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied territories. The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine, and confirm that they will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops,” Sanaa’s forces said at the time.
By 19 November, the Yemeni army had launched numerous drone and missile attacks on Israel’s southern port city of Eilat and had seized one Israeli-linked ship – Galaxy Leader – marking the start of the Yemeni blockade on Israeli-linked or Israel-bound vessels in the Red and Arab Seas.
The USS Carney itself was targeted by a Yemeni ballistic missile in late January. Washington said it was able to shoot the missile down. The Yemenis began attacking US ships that month in response to the violent campaign of US and UK airstrikes on Yemen that started in mid-January.
Since then, the Yemeni army has expanded its operations into the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and most recently, the Mediterranean Sea – where it has carried out several joint operations with the Islamic Resistance of Iraq (IRI).
“This is the most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II – easily, no question,” former US Navy submariner Bryan Clark said last week.