The Pentagon said Monday it remains confident that it will be able to respond to ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea after a Navy aircraft carrier strike group departed the region and it was unclear when another carrier group might arrive.
“We still have capability in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. The Navy will “continue to work very closely with our international allies and partners toward that end when it comes to safeguarding the flow of commerce and safety of mariners in the Red Sea.”
On Saturday, Ryder announced that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group, which has been deployed for more than seven months after two extensions, left the area where Houthi rebels have for months attacked commercial shipping and sailed into the Mediterranean Sea. The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group will eventually take its place in the region.
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However, the Theodore Roosevelt, which is currently deployed in the Pacific, will not begin its journey west until next week, after it completes an exercise, Ryder said, leaving the Navy’s presence in the Red Sea at reduced levels – just two destroyers – until its arrival.
The gap comes as Houthi attacks, which began last November following Israel‘s bombardment of Gaza in response to a Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, have become…
