The United States Navy's Red Sea operations have often raised questions about financial sustainability and the replenishment of all the spent munitions, especially as malign Houthi activity shows no signs of letting up anytime soon, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told US lawmakers earlier this month.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro disclosed in April that the Navy had already fired nearly $1 billion worth of missiles to counter the Houthis over the previous six months, underscoring the depth and growing financial cost of the US naval activity in the region.
The US Navy carrier strike group Dwight D. Eisenhower has spent months battling the Houthis in the Red Sea where it fired more than 500 munitions throughout its deployment.
As part of the effort to counter these Houthis attacks, the US strike group has gone after nearly 430 planned and dynamic Houthi targets in dozens of self-defense actions, according to new information Navy officials provided to Business Insider.
The Eisenhower's air wing, which includes F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters and EA-18 Growler jets, has been involved in the release of more than 350 air-to-surface weapons and over 50 air-to-air missiles, according to the officials. Aircraft from the strike group have flown more than 27,200 hours across over 12,100 sorties.
Navy guided-missile cruisers and destroyers, meanwhile, have launched more than 100 Standard and Tomahawk missiles (surface-to-air and land-attack missiles, respectively), the officials said.
But these munitions aren't cheap; a single Standard Missile-2 interceptor, for instance, is estimated to cost about $2 million. With engagements happening on a consistent basis since the fall, the expenditure of so many missiles has added up.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney defeats a combination of Houthi missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the Red Sea, Oct. 19.
"It is true" that the Houthi attacks are ongoing, a senior US defense official told reporters earlier this week, adding: "It is also true that we feel, through our coalition strikes, we degraded their capability. We've also interdicted weapons that have been shipped to them for resupply.
"But this is not a resolved issue yet. It's also an issue that really is a global concern."