The US military responded to the attempted attacks on the USS Mason with strikes of its own against Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen early Thursday morning local time, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook announced. The strikes, carried out by the USS Nitze, targeted three radar sites on the Red Sea coast that were involved in the missile launches that targeted the destroyer in the Red Sea in recent days. Initial assessments show the sites were destroyed. “These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said in the statement. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world.”
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.