Stress of Houthi combat was a key factor in series of costly Navy mishaps, investigations show

WASHINGTON (AP) — New investigative reports into a series of high-profile and costly Navy mishaps during a U.S.-led campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels reveal that the most intense running sea battle that the military service has faced since World War II took a toll on ships and personnel.

The four reports released Thursday cover a “friendly fire” incident in December 2024 that saw the cruiser USS Gettysburg shoot at two fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, downing one, as well as the Truman’s collision with a merchant vessel and the loss of two more multimillion-dollar jets from the carrier to mishaps earlier this year.

Taken together, the reports paint a picture of an aircraft carrier that was not only beset by regular missile attacks that stressed the crew but also other operational demands that put pressure on top leaders to the point that the ship’s captain and navigator were extremely sleep-deprived. That was just halfway through an eight-month deployment originally slated to last six months.

One report also found that, in some parts of the ship, the intense combat operations “led to a numbness among the crew” and some sailors “lost sight of the purpose of their role to the mission.”

The four preventable mishaps cost the Navy over $100 million in three lost aircraft and damage to the Truman as well as injuries to multiple sailors. While no one died, several of the mishaps hinged on just seconds of reaction time.

‘A wake-up call’ for the Navy

The investigation into the Truman’s collision with a merchant vessel said that “had the collision occurred 100 ft forward, the impact would have likely pierced a berthing compartment with 120 sleeping Sailors.”

Capt. Dave Snowden, the Truman’s commander at the time, “reduced the angle of impact, and delayed the time to impact, which likely prevented more significant damage and potential loss of life” in the seconds before the collision, the report said.

The mishaps with the Truman are a “wake-up call” for the Navy about the demands of battle and the dangers of overextending ships and their crew, said Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher at RAND and a retired Navy captain.

“The clear message from this deployment is that the Navy is not ready to deal with the reality of extended combat,” Martin said, adding that the Truman “was obviously at a point where it was running at a ragged edge.”

The campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen began in October 2023 when the militants began launching drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. U.S. military operations to counter the Houthis began under then-President Joe Biden, and President Donald Trump continued the campaign.

It culminated with a monthlong bombing campaign earlier this year, during which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive information about a strike over Signal chat. The Pentagon’s inspector general said Thursday that the move put U.S. troops at risk, even though Hegseth had the authority to declassify the material.

Unclear accountability following major mishaps

It is unclear what, if anything, the Navy did to hold most of the sailors and leaders involved to account because those sections in the reports were redacted. The Navy did publicly relieve Snowden of command about a week after the collision with the merchant vessel.

Adm. James Kilby, the Navy’s second-highest ranking officer, assured reporters Thursday that “accountability actions were taken across all the operators involved” in the four mishaps but he did not offer any details.

Martin of RAND said there should be individual accountability but added that “some of this is a case of the Navy writ large asking for too much and finding out what happens when too much is demanded.”

“The level of air threat that was coming from the Houthis, it’s nothing like you’d get from China, but it was enough to be stressing,” Martin said. “And I think what you saw was a lot of brittleness in the readiness and preparation.”

All four investigations revolve around the Truman. The ship was the third aircraft carrier dispatched to the region, arriving in December 2024.

Firing on US fighter jets and a collision at sea

The Truman conducted its first defensive strike against the Houthis on Dec. 22, 2024, and other ships in the carrier’s strike group spent several hours defending against retaliatory cruise missiles and attack drones.

The USS Gettysburg, one ship in the strike group, mistook several F/A-18F fighter jets from the Truman for more Houthi missiles and fired at two of them. The heavily redacted report largely faulted the sailors in the Gettysburg’s combat information center for being poorly trained and overly relying on technology that had faced problems.

The troops from one jet ejected before the missile struck, while the ship stopped the second missile shortly before impact.

In February, sailors on the Truman told investigators that they felt the strain of “a pressurized schedule and a culture of ‘just get it done.’”

As it prepared to head back to the Red Sea following a port visit, it had to sail through the highly trafficked waters just outside the Suez Canal. Running behind schedule, an officer drove the massive aircraft carrier at a speed that investigators later called unsafe. It would have needed almost a mile and a half to come to a stop after halting the engines.

As a merchant ship moved into the carrier’s path, the officer did not take enough action to escape danger, the report found, listing his actions as the top cause for the collision. The commander and the ship’s navigator also were faulted for not fully realizing the risks of the transit.

The loss of two more Navy jets

Once the ship was back in the Red Sea, the crew was conducting combat operations and “flying everyday with little exception” since March 15, Capt. Christopher Hill, the new commander, told investigators.

In April, the ship made a sharp turn to avoid an incoming Houthi missile as sailors in the hangars were moving aircraft around. As the Truman began to tilt with the turn, the jet began to slip.

The sailors moving the jet told investigators that as the plane slipped off the deck and into the ocean, its landing wheels were rolling despite the sailor inside the plane “actively attempting to brake.”

The deck also was far dirtier and more slippery than normal, partly because “high operational tempo of combat flight operations impeded the regular 10-day scrubs” that were needed.

In May, an F/A-18F fighter jet went overboard while trying to land on the Truman. The investigation found that a cable designed to bring the 50,000-pound jet to a halt in just a few hundred feet snapped mid-landing. That’s because poor maintenance on the equipment meant the system was missing a crucial part.

After reading the investigation, then-commander of Truman’s strike group, Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, said maintenance was allowed “to degrade to the level of abject failure.”

Investigators, however, also noted that “personnel struggled to balance maintenance requirements with operational requirements” and that “multiple personnel identified operational tempo as one of the most significant challenges” for sailors tasked with maintaining the equipment.