A Year of U.S. Military Failures: Yemeni Forces Challenge American Hegemony
A Year of Confrontation: The U.S. Struggles in the Red Sea
For an entire year, the United States has persisted in its attempts to maintain its military presence in the Red Sea despite suffering severe losses at the hands of Yemeni armed forces. The full might of the U.S. Navy, including its symbolic dominance as a global power, has failed to achieve tangible results in its conflict against Yemen.
Yemeni forces now fully control the operational theater, reducing Israeli navigation in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea to zero. Meanwhile, U.S. aircraft carriers have become consistent targets, with several carriers facing fierce attacks and another retreating without even entering the conflict zone.
The U.S. Navy, brought from across the globe to secure Israeli shipping routes, has proven incapable of even defending itself from Yemeni attacks. These strikes have forced the American fleet to adopt evasive maneuvers and retreat from Yemeni waters.
U.S. Failures Amid Yemen’s New Rules of Engagement
Military experts assert that the United States has failed to deter Yemeni military operations. Meanwhile, Yemen has imposed a new balance of power, forcing the U.S. to retreat from Bab al-Mandeb and the Red and Arabian Seas—regions of strategic importance to American interests.
Experts highlight Yemen’s success in shattering American dominance in the region. For decades, U.S. aircraft carriers symbolized global supremacy, but Yemeni missiles and drones have effectively neutralized these icons of power.
Yemeni Operations: “Highly Complex,” Says the Enemy
On January 12, 2024, the U.S.-led coalition launched airstrikes targeting Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and Hodeidah, claiming to have hit numerous military sites. In response, Yemeni forces expanded their operations to include American and British naval vessels in addition to Israeli-aligned ships.
Brigadier General Mujib Shamsan emphasized Yemen’s moral and humanitarian commitment to Gaza as a driving force for these retaliatory strikes, contrasting this with the U.S.’s support for Israeli aggression.
Shamsan explained that, for the first time in history, the U.S. deployed its entire naval fleet—including destroyers, frigates, submarines, and aircraft carriers—in an attempt to assert dominance in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Yet Yemeni forces, employing advanced weaponry and strategic precision, rendered this unprecedented show of force ineffective.
Devastating Strikes on the U.S. Navy
Over the past year, Yemeni forces have inflicted significant damage on the U.S. Navy in engagements described as unparalleled in modern military history. Yemeni strikes targeted not only American warships but also destroyers and frigates, forcing them to retreat from Yemeni territorial waters.
Brigadier General Shamsan highlighted that Yemen’s advanced hypersonic missiles and drones have overwhelmed U.S. defenses, showcasing a stark technological superiority over American systems.
Unprecedented Boldness Against U.S. Hegemony
Faced with the ineffectiveness of its naval assets, the U.S. deployed the aircraft carrier “Eisenhower” to the region, hoping it would turn the tide. However, Yemeni forces launched preemptive strikes that forced Eisenhower to retreat, marking a historic failure for the U.S. Navy. According to U.S. officials, this was the first time since World War II that an aircraft carrier faced such intense and effective attacks.
Brigadier General Shamsan described Yemen’s successful targeting of Eisenhower as a groundbreaking achievement in military and intelligence capabilities. He stated that this forced retreat represented a critical blow to American prestige and power projection in the region.
The U.S. response was to replace Eisenhower with the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, but Yemeni forces vowed to target it as well. On July 12, 2024, the U.S. Central Command announced the arrival of Roosevelt in the Red Sea to succeed Eisenhower. Sayyid Abdulmalik al-Houthi declared that the new carrier would face the same fate, promising advanced missile strikes that could not be intercepted.
Roosevelt remained in the region for only a few weeks before retreating to California. It was replaced by Abraham Lincoln, which also faced repeated strikes, ultimately leading to its withdrawal. The U.S. then deployed the carrier Harry Truman, which Yemeni forces targeted six times with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.
Ending American Arrogance in the Region
Brigadier General Abdulghani al-Zubaidi explained that repeated Yemeni strikes on Harry Truman created significant disarray within the U.S. fleet. He noted that Yemeni operations systematically undermined the symbolic and strategic value of U.S. aircraft carriers, rendering them obsolete as tools of power projection.
The use of four aircraft carriers—from Eisenhower to Harry Truman—underscored the challenges faced by the U.S. in the Red Sea. Yemeni attacks shattered the prestige of these carriers, reducing them to symbols of failure and exposing the limitations of American naval power.
Experts concluded that Yemeni forces had decisively ended American arrogance in the region. By asserting control over Yemen’s territorial waters, they dismantled decades of unchallenged U.S. hegemony, reshaping the balance of power in the Red Sea.
