US Navy warships fought off a ‘complex’ missile and drone attack in the Red Sea

• US Navy ships operating in the Red Sea shot down a number of Houthi missiles and drones on Friday.
• A Pentagon spokesperson described the incident as a “complex attack.”
• The Houthis claimed to score hits on the American warships, but US officials pushed back on this.

US Navy warships shot down a barrage of Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea on Friday in what a Pentagon spokesperson described as a “complex attack.”

Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon spokesperson, said no US warships were damaged or struck by the Houthi munitions, and there were no injuries to American personnel.

“We did see a complex attack launched from the Houthis that ranged from cruise missiles and [drones],” Singh told reporters at a briefing. “My understanding is that those were either engaged and shot down or failed.”

The Houthis said earlier that they targeted three Navy warships with nearly two dozen ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. The Iran-backed rebels claimed to score direct hits on the vessels, although US officials pushed back on this and there’s no credible evidence to support it.

When asked at the briefing whether the US assessed that the warships were the intended targets of the attack, Singh said it was unclear.

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether they’re being shot in the vicinity of a US ship or targeting another vessel. We always take measures for our self-defense, so I can’t really tell you the intended target,” Singh said.

“We did what we had to do to protect our forces, and at the end of the day, no ship was hit, no damage, and no injuries to our personnel,” she added.

A US official told Business Insider on Friday that the Navy currently has five warships in the Red Sea: the destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen, USS Michael Murphy, USS Spruance, USS Stockdale, and the littoral combat ship USS Indianapolis.

Only the Petersen and Michael Murphy were in the Red Sea a little over a week ago, a US official told BI at the time, suggesting that the other three warships moved into the region within the last few days. The increased Red Sea presence comes amid heightened fears of an all-out conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, another militant group backed by Iran.

Some reporters identified the Spruance, Stockdale, and Indianapolis as the warships that appeared to come under attack on Friday.

The incident marked the latest provocation from the Houthis, who have spent months attacking merchant shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with deadly missiles and drones. The Houthis have previously made up having struck US warships.

US warships have routinely been tasked with intercepting these threats and frequently carry out strikes against the rebels in Yemen.

However, until Friday, the past two weeks had been relatively quiet. US forces said they destroyed one missile system in Yemen and two drones over the Red Sea during this time period.