The head of the US carrier strike group says more aggressive strikes on the Houthis have been on the decline

“There are definite strategies that have been proposed, but our National Command Authority decided that those — I would call more aggressive posts and more aggressive shots — were not something we wanted to challenge,” Miguez said in the interview published Monday.

“We all know Iran-backed groups like the Houthis are where this threat comes from,” he said. “This is the calculation that is handled at ground zero, at the National Command Authority, at the NSA, and at everyone else.”

“These are things I don’t meddle in,” he added.

Miguez told Carroll that the carrier’s strike group launched seven dedicated strikes against Houthi targets during its twice-extended deployment from October 2023 to June 2024.

The group, which includes the aircraft carrier Ike, was previously reported to have launched more than 500 munitions to directly hit Yemeni rebels and intercept their drones and missiles as they attacked merchant ships in the strait.

Since the Eisenhower group departed, the carrier strike groups Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln have moved into the Middle East as regional tensions continue to rise.

Miguez indicated that he believes the US should take a more aggressive stance with the Houthis.

“Going forward, we’re going to have to continue to deal with it,” he said. “It’s going to be up to our National Command Authority to probably be more aggressive with strike groups and all of our assets, not just the Navy.”

The Houthis said they were only targeting ships linked to Israel because of the war in Gaza. But the group has also launched attacks on ships from other countries with no apparent ties to Tel Aviv.

More recently, the rebel group attacked a Greek-flagged oil tanker that caught fire and drifted in the Red Sea.

Miguez said that to stop the attacks, the US must organize all its resources more aggressively, including diplomacy and economic policy.

“If we can focus with a whole-of-government approach, I think that will result in freedom of navigation in that critical strait, which affects about 20 percent of global trade,” he said.

Miguez was named chief of naval legislative affairs in July.

Since leaving command of the Eisenhower carrier strike group, he has said the US needs to train more to fight drones after seeing how much the Houthis have used them in the Red Sea.

The Pentagon’s press service did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent after business hours by Business Insider.