The US Navy’s Eisenhower carrier strike group racked up over 100 drone and missile kills battling the Houthis

An F/A-18 Super Hornet lands on the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in April.

A US Navy carrier strike group that battled Houthi threats in the Red Sea for months destroyed over 100 missiles and drones during its deployment.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group was on the front lines throughout much of the US military’s ongoing campaign against the Houthis. It spent seven months engaged in constant combat operations against the Iran-backed rebels in response to their attacks on merchant shipping lanes.

Capt. Chris Hill, the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the strike group’s flagship, said “there were very few days” during the first half of the year where “something did not happen” in the conflict.

Incidents included Houthi missile and drone attacks on military and civilian vessels and Navy airstrikes targeting the rebels and their weapons in Yemen, Hill shared with the Military Reporters & Editors Conference in Washington on Friday.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in June.

The Eisenhower strike group, consisting of the carrier Ike and several other warships, “racked up a lot of equipment kills” during the deployment, Hill said. “I’m talking about shooting down well more than a hundred drones, a couple dozen ballistic missiles, some cruise missiles, and a couple dozen small boats.”

“We also destroyed hundreds of land targets to include surface-to-air missile systems, weapons caches, missiles and drones on the ground, and so on,” Hill added.

The Eisenhower strike group fired nearly 800 munitions during its deployment, which began last fall and wrapped up in July. These included surface-to-air interceptor missiles, land-attack missiles, air-to-air missiles, and air-to-surface weapons fired by warships and aircraft.

These combat operations have come at a high cost, though. The Navy said it fired over $1 billion worth of munitions between early October 2023 and mid-July 2024. Several months later, US forces are still intercepting Houthi threats and striking the rebels in Yemen.

The high financial toll of the first few months of the Navy’s counter-Houthi campaign and the fact that it shows no clear signs of ending have raised concerns about sustainment and missile expenditure.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet takes off during flight operations aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in January. 

Hill said the strike group was aware of the concerns about conserving weapons and using expensive missiles — some worth several million dollars — against cheap Houthi drones that may cost just a few thousand.

He said the strike group quickly transitioned to cheaper ways to destroy the Houthi drones, like taking them on the ground in Yemen using inexpensive Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs. These are dumb bombs fitted with guidance kits that turn them into precision weapons. Navy F/A-18s also knocked out threats with their air-to-air missiles.

Navy officials have praised the strike group heavily for its actions during the counter-Houthi campaign.

“When called upon, the force brought the fight to the Houthis in their front yard, linking airpower and dynamic and self-defense strikes,” Vice Adm. George Wikoff, the US 5th Fleet commander, said upon the strike group’s return from its deployment in July.

“These acts reduced the risk to shipping and also reinforced our nation’s commitment to maritime security,” Wikoff said, calling it “the Navy’s finest moments since World War II.”