US Media Warns About Houthi Threat to Aircraft Carriers as Tensions Boil Over in Red Sea

US Media Warns About Houthi Threat to Aircraft Carriers as Tensions Boil Over in Red Sea

Sputnik

Houthi threats against Israel and the US have grown louder in the past two weeks after an Israeli strike on the Yemeni port Hodeidah, and the killing of Hamas’s chief negotiator in Tehran. The militia has proven more than capable of enforcing a semi-blockade of the Red Sea, and may be just one lucky strike away from sinking a massive US warship.

US media have warned about the “alarming” prospects of a multi-billion-dollar Nimitz-class supercarrier being put at risk by technically “unsophisticated” Houthi adversaries.

“Despite the aircraft carrier's formidable defenses and advanced technology, the persistence of Houthi harassment has sparked debates about the vulnerability of such vessels in modern combat environments, especially when facing unconventional threats from non-state actors like the Houthis,” National Interest contributor Harrison Kass wrote in a piece published Saturday.

“Aircraft carriers are uniquely expensive,” the observer pointed out, citing the Nimitz class’s $6-7 billion dollars apiece price tag, and the newer Ford class’s gargantuan $13 billion per ship cost. That’s not counting the vessels’ 4,600-5,200 crew, or their complement of aircraft, which cost tens of millions of dollars each.

“The aircraft carrier is a tool of great power politics. It is a floating city capable of delivering airpower around the world. The Americans built their aircraft carrier [fleet] with world powers like Russia and China in mind. Houthi rebels, not so much. Yet, the Houthis seem bent on harassing the Eisenhower,” Kass recalled, pointing to media reports from earlier this summer of the carrier’s crew becoming fatigued after experiencing its “most intense running sea battle since World War II.”

Kass’s piece is the latest bit of speculation in Western media about whether the Houthis have the means to destroy an American supercarrier. Last month, Forbes contributor David Hambling urged smug observers not to get too cocky and “take a closer look at the facts before writing off the threat.”

Pointing to Soviet and Russian analyses suggesting it would take between 12 and 20+ missiles to kill a US aircraft carrier, and calculations based on the Nimitz-class’s 88,000 metric ton displacement that anywhere between five and 100 warheads would be needed to do so, Hambling warned that “history tells a different story,” and that a lucky strike triggering onboard fires and explosions “does not require a large amount of explosive” to bring about.

More