The Red Sea has traditionally been a hotbed of politics and trade in its hinterland, but now it’s an entirely different game—real violence. When drones and missiles began hitting merchant vessels and even warships, the U.S. The Navy found itself engaged in one of the most hostile and longest sea battles in history. The ship that they were using was the destroyer USS Carney. They had no idea what they were about to get themselves into.
Red Sea and bordering seas shipboarding of more than one hundred had been observed in months. More than sixty countries’ vessels were terrorized, crew and cargo in jeopardy, from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Aden. Shipping lanes were being disrupted. Some routes involved ships going around Africa, weeks, a nd hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel expenses.
This was not conventional piracy or bullying. Anti-ship ballistic missiles were employed for the first time in the history of humankind to strike warships and merchant vessels. Even though the majority of the drones and missiles were destroyed or failed to reach the target, some ships sank, and some lives were lost, unfortunately. Even the survivors were threatened with the risk of being outwitted by clever attacks day and night.
Sailors were looking forward to a peaceful deployment when the USS Carney arrived. Peace was broken on Oct. 19, 2023. The ship was hit with a penetrative but heavy strike. Clear deck, and now guns flashed up in flames to protect sailors and the ship. Carney sailors disabled fifteen drones and four cruise missiles for over a decade-long tense suspense. The Navy would dub it the hottest-headed fire it had ever seen in decades on board. Blissful crew and training mix blissfully at the pinnacle of the agenda.
During the chaos and adrenaline, they were both professional and precise, taking care of themselves. The Carney had deflected more than fifty combat missions at the peak of the deployment, shooting down drones, cruise missiles, and even ballistic threats before getting to range to injure anyone. The captain commended his crewmen for being tough and professional and for the manner in which they had supported one another in those moments. Carney’s mission was only a small part of far larger, multinational attempts at defending sea lanes.
Dozens of countries came together to sweep the seas free of toxins, sending troops into umbrella ocean task forces. US warships, carrier task forces, and coalition warships worked together to locate danger and jam guns before shooting blindly. The operation was of colossus magnitude: hundreds of drones and missiles filled, colossus magnitude support logistics began, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were used up. The coalition’s rules of engagement were adjusted with the changing threat scenario. Larger in terms of repellent attacks in the initial phase.
But after a string of attacks on merchant ships, policy became more forceful and specific in trying to hit launchers, caches of supplies, and command centers so they could not attack again. Militants improvised strategies through diverted money and re-routing routes of fueling, but the navy intercepted drone deliveries and missile components to pre-emptive raids. The Yemen war loomed over it. The stalemate of the ground war in the nation was dominating then.
Red Sea attack motives differed between local and regional players. Peace talks were facing cold sparks but no effective solution. Millions of Yemeni citizens who underwent this process were starved by its absence and a devastated economy. The cruise was much bigger in size than they had signed up for with the Carney sailors.
They had been stationary and waiting for hours there for either to conduct training exercises or regular patrols, and the next thing they knew, they were dropped into war-in-the-works at a minute-to-minute tempo. With each assignment, they were grateful for their work—conscious as they were that they were struggling to survive on their ship, they knew they were protecting a lifeline of international trade and defending the lives of countless innocent human beings.
Rotations had worn down Long. The cycle had been hectic, and the ship and crew had suffered for it. There would be repair, standdown, and retraining ahead. But in returning home with Carney, her sailors had an eternity of pride. They had ridden record danger and assisted in recording a classic within the pages of modern naval warfare history.
Red Sea deployment was a tough school that even in this new era, the world’s most important sea lanes aren’t beyond harm—and they’re guarded by strength, cooperation, and endurance. Every member of every crew’s metal was toughened, but faith, training, and esprit de corps kept it toughened. What they did will be the standard of naval operations for decades to come.