US Navy aircraft carrier going head-to-head with the Houthis has its planes in the air 'constantly,' strike-group commander says - Jake Epstein, Business Insider

"It's a huge effort," Rear Adm. Marc Miguez told Business Insider during an interview on the Ike in the Red Sea this week. "We're going at it constantly," he said, adding that the crew is "launching airplanes every hour to hour and a half."

Dozens of planes may take off from the carrier during a typical day, which can include multiple launch and recovery cycles over a period that can last up to 12 hours, if not longer. [...]

The aircraft can be tasked with various missions once they're airborne, from training to defending commercial vessels and US Navy ships from Houthi attacks. They always have to be ready to strike rebel assets in Yemen if needed, Capt. Marvin Scott, the commander of the Eisenhower's carrier air wing, said.

Preemptive strikes, which are aimed at effectively eliminating Houthi missiles and drones before they can even become a threat to international shipping lanes, have become a regular occurrence in recent weeks. Before this shift in tactics, the US spent months shooting down Houthi threats in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after they had already been launched by the rebels.

US Central Command has announced preemptive military actions on multiple occasions over the past few days. These have destroyed a handful of unmanned surface vessels, which are drone boats that can be packed with explosives, and anti-ship missiles.

So it seems that after one of the US ships intercepted an anti ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis using it's CIWS, after it evaded interceptor missiles, the US has been forced to change tactics. CIWS is a last line of defence, a missile intercepted by CIWS is a few seconds from landing a direct hit on a ship, and can still land an indirect hit, or spray shrapnel all over the targeted ship. CIWS cannot be relied on to continuously intercept missiles, it's a last line of defence. So the US now has to have jets in the air 24/7, to take down any missiles Ansar Allah/the Houthis are about to launch against US Navy ships, before they are launched from their launch sites. This has to be done because US Navy ships cannot rely on their air defence and missile interception systems to intercept the missiles anymore. Ansar Allah has figured out a way to bypass that layer of defence on occasion. I predicted such a change in tactics a few weeks ago.

This is going to be a very costly exercise for the US Navy. Ansar Allah can also use this change of tactics to manipulate the US Navy, for instance by putting out some defunct warheads or missiles, or fake/"blank" missiles, which the US Navy will be forced to launch airstrikes at to ensure the safety of their ships. I'd consider this a strategic win for Ansar Allah here, the US Navy now has to waste millions of dollars to launch airstrikes against potential fake missiles to ensure that their Navy is safe. Yes the US still has the overwhelming force advantage, but at what cost?