On board the American aircraft carrier fighting the Houthis in the Red Sea

The same exercise is repeated almost every evening.

A call comes in that mobile missile launchers have appeared somewhere in Yemen, near the coast, preparing to fire.

Except the one on boardthe Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier It’s not an exercise.

For two months the 5,000 sailors and pilots on board carried out a almost daily task and at night: find and destroy weapons storage sites, missile systems, air defense systems, radars and missile launchers before the Houthi militia uses the weapons to find and destroy. Commercial ships in the Red Sea.

On the Eisenhower, fighter pilots make up only a small percentage of the entire crew, serving a life support role.

“The mission couldn’t be accomplished without them,” Capt. Christopher Hill, Eisenhower’s commander, said in an interview.

“But everyone on board works to support them.”

On a recent Tuesday night, it was the same routine.

Seven Houthi missile launchers have appeared along the coast of Yemen.

Aboard the Eisenhower, the cruiser Philippine Sea and other U.S. Navy warships deployed to counter the Houthi threat, it was another busy night.

First, U.S. service members, who are commanded by U.S. Central Command for this mission, carried out four “self-defense strikes” (Pentagon jargon for shooting missile launchers before they deploy).

Between midnight and 6.45am, the military also shot down a one-way attack drone, called an “UAS,” for unmanned aerial systems.

“These actions will protect the freedom of navigation and will make international waters safer for the U.S. Navy and merchant vessels,” Central Command later said in a statement.

The statements that Central Command releases almost every day rarely capture the colorful atmosphere and careful choreography aboard the Eisenhower and other warships.

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is one of the most intense of the world.

Then there is the very short runway.

At around 91.5 metres, it is a small fraction of the length of a commercial airline runway, which can be between 2,500 and 3,900 metres.

Capacity

Pilots taking off need a little help getting off the ground.

Since the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is much shorter than that of a land runway, aircraft carriers of this type depend on it catapults powered by steam to launch planes into the air in an extremely short period of time.

Landing is even more difficult.

The pilot must line up with the runway, lower the tailhook and enter at the correct angle, with fractions of a second to capture one of the four cables of detention.

Once the wheels touch the deck, the pilot pushes the plane to full speed, in case the tailhook has not caught the cable and the plane needs to take off again.

The Eisenhower has been at sea since October.

It’s been five months without a break.

Operations are carried out 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s the same cycle: the planes are loaded with ammunition; planes are launched; the jets return empty.

When asked how they cope with the stress and pressure of the endless routine, one sailor joked:

“traumatic bond”.

The Houthis have managed to keep Saudi Arabia at bay for eight years, Pentagon officials say.

But the US military is not Saudi Arabia.

However, the Houthis resist and continue to attack commercial ships Red Sea, in solidaritythey say, with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under Israeli bombardment.

The army understands that the Houthis will not surrender, a chief petty officer said.

The Navy asked that the sailor’s name not be used.

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