Largest aircraft carrier airstrike fired in the history of the world, says US Admiral

The USS Harry S Truman carrier group launched the largest airstrike in the history of the world, US Naval Chief of Operations Admiral James Kilby has revealed.  

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations about bombing attacks on ISIS in February, Admiral Kilby said they had dropped 125,000lbs from a single aircraft carrier into Somalia. 

He added that the carrier strike group had intercepted 160 threats either to themselves, Israel or commercial shipping, and they had conducted 670 strikes on targets.

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The aircraft carrier has left the Red Sea after an eventful deployment since her arrival in the region in December 2024.

Within a week, an F/A-18 fighter aircraft had been accidentally shot down by the ship whose job is to protect the carrier, USS Gettysburg. The Super Hornet crew were fortunately able to eject and survive. 

In February, USS Truman left the Red Sea and collided with a merchant vessel while exiting the Suez Canal. 

This led to the US Navy relieving the Commanding Officer from duty and replacing him with Captain Chris 'Chowdah' Hill, who had previously led the USS Eisenhower in the Red Sea. 

In March, the vessel was back in the Red Sea and engaged in an intensive bombing campaign on the Houthis in Yemen in an operation named Rough Rider by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth. 

During this operation, up to seven US MQ-9 Reaper drones were shot down by the Houthis using Iranian-supplied air defence missiles

The Truman also lost an F/A-18 Super Hornet and its towing tractor overboard on 28 April. 

Then, a week later, an F/A-18 landing had an arrester cable failure and crashed off the front of the carrier, with the crew ejecting safely. 

In early May, President Donald Trump called a halt to the strikes on Yemen. 

"We hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment," President Trump said.

"They took tremendous punishment. You could say there's a lot of bravery there. It's amazing what they took."

Now, the USS Truman carrier strike group will rotate back to the US after an extended tour. 

The USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, equipped with F-35s and F/A-18s, remains on station in the region.