Navy fighter jets from Carrier Air Wing 3, embarked aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, employed several weapons in combat for the first time during their recently completed deployment to the Middle East, where they battled Houthi attacks and struck targets held by the Iran-backed group in Yemen.
Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets from Strike Fighter Squadron 105 became the first squadron in the Navy to shoot off the AIM-9X infrared-seeking missile in combat.
The milestone came as the squadron, known as the “Gunslingers,” took out Houthi one-way-attack air drones targeting civilian merchant ships, according to the Navy.
The squadron also led the first strikes against Houthi facilities in Yemen in January. These missions allowed the squadron to launch an Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, or AARGM, for the first time from an F/A-18E Super Hornet. The air-to-ground missile is used to suppress or destroy enemy air defenses.
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The squadron also successfully employed the Joint Standoff Weapon-C Variant for the first time in combat, the Navy said. It is the Navy’s first air-to-ground network-enabled weapon that can be used against stationary land and moving maritime targets.
“Our families and friends that loved us, supported us, and sacrificed daily to enable our team to execute continuous combat operations are the true heroes,” Cmdr. Travis “Sweet T” Amerine, commanding officer of the Gunslingers, said in a Navy news release. “For nine months straight, the entire Gunslinger family, those deployed and those back home, banded together to fight evil and save innocent lives. I could not be more proud nor more humbled to have been a witness to them all.”
Additionally, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot from Strike Fighter Squadron 32 was piloted by the first American woman to engage and kill an air-to-air contact, taking down a Houthi air drone targeting civilian merchant vessels.
Other firsts for Carrier Air Wing 3 include Electronic Attack Squadron 130 becoming the first E/A-18G Growler squadron in the Navy to secure an air-to-air kill, as well as the first to fire off an Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile in combat.
“I can’t remember the last time the Navy had a more challenging deployment with a combination of multiple extensions, severely limited opportunities for R&R, and true combat,” Cmdr. Carl Ellsworth, the commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron 130, said in a Navy news release. “…not just for aviators, but the crew of the whole strike group as well, in the most kinetic action at sea since World War II.”
The crew of the Ike earned the Combat Action Ribbon – or the CAR – for their actions during the deployment to the Middle East. The award is for sailors and Marines who actively participated in ground or surface action, and has rarely been issued since the 1991 Gulf War.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro also approved the Air Medal for those with the “Strike/Flight” designation for conducting sustained aerial operations in the region.
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt arrived in the Middle East this month to swap spots with the Ike and “to deter aggression, promote regional stability, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” according to U.S. Central Command.
