According to a recent report from the U.S. Navy, on April 28, 2025, an F/A-18E Super Hornet was lost at sea from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
The aircraft was being towed by a tractor into the hangar bay when the carrier made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, causing both the aircraft and the tow tractor to fall overboard.
Sailors were able to clear the aircraft and tow tractor before they went over the side. All personnel are accounted for, and only one sailor sustained a minor injury.
According to U.S. officials, an individual F/A-18 fighter jet costs more than $60 million.
The Truman is currently deployed in the Middle East and was in the Red Sea during the incident. There have been multiple reports of the carrier being targeted by attacks from the Houthis in Yemen.
The U.S. Navy is still investigating the incident to determine who was at fault.
yuje on April 29th, 2025 at 01:02 UTC »
The Houthis are barely a step above a ragtag band of militia, and they don’t even control the entirety of their own country, much less a significant industrial base. If they can pose a credible threat to aircraft carriers and even cause significant asymmetrical damage (cheap rockets and drones vs million-dollar missiles and fighter jets), how is the USN going to perform against hundreds of Chinese DF anti-ship ballistic missiles and the world’s leading drone production pipeline?
frizzykid on April 28th, 2025 at 23:41 UTC »
The "avoiding houthi fire" needs wayyyy more attention. You don't just get close to a us aircraft carrier. There is a whole fleet around defending them, jets to defend from air and SAM to attack things jets can't reach, submarine systems to detect underwater attacks, etc designed to protect them from things getting close enough to divert it off course. These are GIANT. They look like islands out at sea. It turning requires a tremendous amount of energy and a lot more than just an f18 could have been lost if the crew didn't have enough time to react accordingly.
The Truman carrier costs around 4.5 billion dollars, Im very interested in what caused this breach.
Mysterious_Dirt5543 on April 28th, 2025 at 23:07 UTC »
The US Navy lost a 60 million dollar jet after it fell overboard from an aircraft carrier. This happened in the Red Sea. It was reported the carrier had made a hard turn to avoid Houthi attacks.