This is an excerpt from Security Briefing, Al-Monitor's weekly newsletter covering defense and conflict developments in the Middle East. To get Security Briefing in your inbox, sign up here.
ABOARD USS EISENHOWER — At 3:24 a.m. last Thursday, a low voice came over the public alert system onboard the USS Eisenhower, the American aircraft carrier in the southern Red Sea.
Within half an hour, an F/A-18E Super Hornet roared off the deck and into the night sky, the first of several fighter jets scrambled to intercept half a dozen Houthi drones fired from Yemen toward US and coalition warships.
US Navy pilots of the Eisenhower’s Carrier Air Wing 3 and accompanying destroyers have shot down dozens of unmanned drones and anti-ship ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis into international waters off Yemen’s coast in recent weeks, chalking up firsts in the history of counter-drone warfare.
