AhlulBayt News Agency: The US Navy has completed an investigation into four incidents involving the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group during its deployment near Yemen, concluding that stress played a major role in the mishaps.
The investigation, released Thursday, examined events between December 2024 and May 2025, including the loss of three fighter jets in the Red Sea and a collision between the Truman and a merchant ship near Port Said, Egypt.
These four incidents cost the Navy over $100 million, with three F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft destroyed, damage to the carrier itself, and injuries to several sailors.
The probe revealed that the Truman’s crew was strained not only by Yemeni missile and drone attacks but also by operational demands that left personnel sleep-deprived.
Investigators noted that the pace of Yemen’s retaliatory strikes exhausted US sailors, exposing weaknesses in critical systems and personnel who were not fully prepared for combat missions.
In February, sailors aboard the Truman told investigators they were burdened by “a pressurized schedule and a culture of ‘just get it done.’”
Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher at RAND, described the Truman’s mishaps as a “wake-up call” for the Navy about the dangers of overextending ships and crews.
He said, “The clear message from this deployment is that the Navy is not ready for extended combat,” adding that the Truman “was obviously running at a ragged edge.”
Martin further explained that the air threat from Yemen was “enough to be stressing,” which exposed “a lot of brittleness in readiness and preparation.”
The Yemeni Armed Forces launched a pro-Palestine campaign in November 2023, targeting Israeli-linked ships and striking occupied territories, a month after Israel began its war on Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel and the US carried out deadly airstrikes across Yemen, violating international law and the UN Charter.
The US escalated its aggression by deploying aircraft carriers to deter Yemen from retaliatory anti-Israel operations.
In May, the US and Yemen reached a ceasefire brokered by Oman, following repeated US-led bombings of Yemeni cities and continued Yemeni retaliatory strikes on American forces.
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