USS Truman conducted largest airstrike in Navy history, official says

The U.S. Navy’s Provider Air Wing 1 engaged within the largest maritime strike in Navy aviation historical past when it comes to bomb tonnage earlier this 12 months, a protection official confirmed to Navy Instances.

On Feb. 1, the plane provider Harry S. Truman launched 27 F/A-18 Tremendous Hornets as a part of a coordinated airstrike in opposition to Islamic State operatives in Somalia in collaboration with the federal authorities of Somalia, a protection official with information of the strike mentioned. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the matter.

Sixteen plane dropped 124,000 kilos of ordnance on targets in lower than two minutes.

“The joint airstrikes focused senior ISIS-Somalia management in a collection of cave complexes roughly 50 miles southeast of Bosaso,” U.S. Africa Command mentioned in a Feb. 11 assertion. “The command’s present evaluation is that roughly 14 ISIS-Somalia operatives have been killed and no civilians have been harmed.”

Amongst these killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an ISIS recruiter and operations chief who led efforts to deploy jihadists into the U.S. and Europe, based on the assertion.

Previous large-scale U.S. airstrikes, like these carried out throughout Operation Desert Storm, concerned a number of plane carriers and air wings, which might fly joint missions, mentioned the protection official.

However the Feb. 1 strike was distinctive in that it was carried out by a single air wing.

The Truman arrived within the Purple Sea on Dec. 14, 2024, to offer fight assist in opposition to Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who’ve carried out missile and drone strikes in opposition to delivery and army vessels within the area since November 2023.

Whereas there, Provider Air Wing 1, composed of eight embarked squadrons aboard the Truman, took half in operations putting over 1,100 targets, the protection official mentioned. The strikes killed a whole bunch of Houthi fighters and a number of senior Houthi officers, based on the official.

Particularly, Provider Air Wing 1 flew over 13,000 sorties and used over 770 weapons and 1.1 million kilos of ordnance.

The Truman left the Purple Sea earlier this month for its homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, based on stories, a number of weeks after President Donald Trump known as off an almost two-month-long airstrike marketing campaign in opposition to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Nonetheless, the provider was marred by a number of mishaps throughout its deployment within the Purple Sea, together with the lack of three F/A-18 Tremendous Hornets, which value not less than $67.4 million every, based on Naval Air Techniques Command. One jet was shot down by pleasant fireplace from the guided missile cruiser Gettysburg in December. Two jets fell overboard, one in April whereas being towed within the provider’s hangar bay and the opposite lower than two weeks later after a failed touchdown.

The provider additionally collided Feb. 13 with a civilian service provider vessel within the Mediterranean Sea close to Port Stated, Egypt. The Navy, consequently, relieved the commanding officer of his duties.