US aircraft carrier battle group fired nearly 800 rounds of ammunition during the fight against the Houthis

• The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group has just returned from fighting the Houthis.
• According to the Navy, the attack group fired nearly 800 missiles and bombs during its mission.
• This includes weapons fired from the air and ships that are used to eliminate the Houthi threat.

U.S. Navy warships and aircraft belonging to a carrier battle group that fought the Houthis for months fired nearly 800 rounds of ammunition during their turbulent deployment in the Middle East.

The new figures, released by the Navy last week, provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date accounting of the missiles and bombs expended by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group during active combat operations against the Iran-backed rebels from November through June. The figures also underscore the high intensity and rising cost of the counter-Houthi mission.

The Eisenhower force recently returned from its deployment, but another carrierthe Truman and other warships replace them.

During its deployment, the Eisenhower battle group — consisting of the aircraft carrier Ike, several destroyers and a cruiser — fired 770 rounds to protect commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from relentless Houthi attacks. That number is more than 250 rounds higher than the figure announced by Navy officials in May, a significant increase in just a few weeks.

During the operation, the warships fired 155 standard surface-to-air missiles, which are used to intercept rockets or drones, and 135 Tomahawk missiles, which are used to strike targets on land. US forces have frequently attacked Houthi facilities, sites and weapons in Yemen.

The carrier squadron assigned to Ike, which included F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft and EA-18 Growler jets, delivered 420 air-to-surface weapons and nearly 60 air-to-air missiles. These weapons were used to intercept air threats, destroy surface targets and attack Yemen. The squadron logged over 31,400 flight hours on nearly 14,000 sorties during the deployment.

“The Houthi targets in Yemen posed an imminent threat to U.S. shipping, coalition forces, and commercial shipping, and these strikes were aimed at debilitating Houthi strike capabilities at over 460 pre-planned, dynamic, self-defense targets,” the Navy said last week.

In its press release, the Navy did not specify which air-launched weapons or how many of each ship-launched missile variant it had fired, making it difficult to calculate the total cost of the weapons used by the battle group. The Navy has identified some of the missiles it used in combat, but an exact breakdown is unclear.

However, by mid-April, the Navy announced that the battle group had already fired about $1 billion worth of missiles. In the months that followed, it fired several hundred more missiles, which means that number is likely significantly higher.

The battle group returned to the U.S. earlier this month after a nine-month deployment that Navy officers and leaders called “unprecedented” and “historic.” During the deployment, it faced a variety of threats in the region, including anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, expendable attack drones and drone boats loaded with explosives.

“When called upon, the force took the fight to the Houthis in their front yard, combining airstrikes with dynamic strikes and self-defense strikes,” Vice Admiral George Wikoff, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet, said in a statement last week as Ike’s deployment came to an end.

The Commander stressed that “these measures reduced the risk to shipping while reaffirming our country’s commitment to maritime security.”