At a House Armed Services Committee posture hearing, the U.S. Central Command commander shared new details about that operation and said it underscores the military’s intensifying need for more and better counter-drone technologies and software.

“We absolutely need to be putting more work into directed energy [and] high-powered microwaves, I think, are some of the innovations that have come out of this since Operation Rough Rider. About 40% of the drones shot down were shot down by something called Advanced Precision Weapon Kill System, a laser-guided 2.75-inch rocket fired off our F-16s or F-15s. That’s a $25,000 munition going against a roughly $50,000 or $100,000 drone — that is an Iranian-provided drone,” Kurilla said.

Iran-backed Houthi fighters based in Yemen kicked off their attacks against vessels traversing crucial international shipping routes near the Red Sea in 2023. They indicated the disruption was meant as a form of protest of America’s support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Early into his second administration, President Donald Trump initiated Operation Rough Rider to dismantle Houthi infrastructure and leadership in the region. Trump announced an end to the operation in early May, following an agreement between America and the Houthis — brokered in part through the Omani government — to suspend the strikes.

Operation Rough Rider cost the U.S. an estimated $1 billion, lawmakers pointed out at the posture hearing. It also resulted in the loss of multiple high-dollar military drones and fighter aircraft. 

“The president gave us a very specific mission, which was to get the Houthis to quit shooting at American ships. Six months ago on 12 November 2024, was the last time a destroyer went through the Bab-el-Mandeb. It was attacked 17 times with anti-ship ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles and [unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs]. In the last week, we put four destroyers back through the Bab-el-Mandeb,” Kurilla said.

After the conclusion of Rough Rider, however, Centcom is “still defending Israel with” its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system against ongoing assaults from the Houthis, which remain under the foreign terrorist organization designation by the U.S.

In the operation’s aftermath though, one major lesson the command learned, as Kurilla put it, is that “software is a weapon” that is rapidly changing the character of warfare.

“Our ability to do Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, the things that we are doing with software — it’s amazing. We have advanced that. We have engineers every day making improvements on our ability to do that. It’s a warfighting headquarters,” Kurilla said.

Software is also driving significant transformations in ballistic missile defense on the contemporary battlefield, the commander noted.

“The same thing, I would tell you, as it comes to counter-UAS as well. We are making changes to the Navy’s software on the SPY radars based on what we’re seeing,” Kurilla told the committee. 

When asked by lawmakers to recommend the top weapons capabilities he views they should most quickly invest in, the commander repeatedly pointed to counter-drone systems, calling them the “number one” in-demand tool at this time.

“We’re only going to see the systems get smaller, more lethal. [On] the electromagnetic spectrum, we try and jam that. That’s why Ukraine and Russia went to fiber optics — going out to 40 kilometers with fiber optic drones — you can’t jam that. So those are the things I would ask for right now, the counter-UAS [and detection capabilities]. I think we need to put aerial [Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radars or ISAR] for low-radar cross section to be able to pick up, elevate it, and then [use] ballistic missile defense,” Kurilla said. 

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“These were the first direct U.K. strikes under this new U.K. [Labour Party-led] government — the last time was on 30 May 2024,” a spokesperson with the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., told DefenseScoop on Wednesday.

These strikes also mark the first to be authorized by the Brits during President Donald Trump’s second presidency.

They were conducted directly in support of Operation Rough Rider — the aggressive campaign Trump initiated in March to dismantle Houthi infrastructure and leadership, as the group continues to carry out intensifying one-way attack drones and missile assaults against military and commercial watercraft in the Red Sea. The Yemen-based fighters kicked off the attacks in 2023 and have indicated they’re meant as a form of protest of America’s support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

On Monday, before the U.S.-U.K. joint mission, the Office of the Navy Chief of Information released a statement confirming that a F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet (valued at more than $60 million) was “lost at sea” after falling overboard the USS Harry S. Truman — reportedly as that aircraft carrier made a sharp turn to evade Houthi fire. 

“This action was taken in response to a persistent threat from the Houthis to freedom of navigation. A 55% drop in shipping through the Red Sea has already cost billions, fuelling regional instability and risking economic security for families in the U.K.,” British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said in a statement to reporters late Tuesday about the latest joint mission.

The strikes happened after dark and Houthi facilities targeted were located around fifteen miles south of Sanaa, Yemen’s largest city.

“Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, with air refuelling support from Voyager tankers, engaged a number of these buildings using Paveway IV precision-guided bombs — once very careful planning had been completed to allow the targets to be prosecuted with minimal risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure,” the British Embassy spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

They added that U.K. forces have also recently supplied routine allied air-to-air refueling support “to aid the self defense of U.S. forces” in the region prior to these strikes.

“We have been clear that the U.K. will not hesitate to take action to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation,” the official said.

A Pentagon spokesperson referred DefenseScoop’s questions Wednesday to U.S. Central Command. Spokespersons from the command did not immediately respond to the request.

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Transcom commander Air Force Gen. Randall Reed — who took charge about six months ago — shared new details this week about that work and related efforts to expand communications with the command’s military and industry partners as they collectively confront navigation-related risks.

“The Houthis behaving the way they are changes a little bit of [our] behavior from the standpoint that a threat actually exists — and they’re projecting a threat continuously. So, understanding that that’s the case now, you do have to pay attention to that and then see what you can do to actually get around that,” Reed told DefenseScoop on the sidelines of the Sea-Air-Space summit. 

The Yemen-based group has launched hundreds of one-way attack drones and missile assaults against U.S. and other nations’ military and commercial vessels since October 2023. Houthi leaders have indicated that the operations largely mark their protest to America’s support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

U.S. Central Command has responded with deadly strikes against the Houthis.

Recent maritime data indicates that companies have rerouted their ships to longer sea lanes that require much more transit time, as a result of this conflict. 

Prior to taking the helm as Transcom’s commander last year, Reed — a command pilot with more than 3,500 flight hours — led a numbered air force, wing, expeditionary operations groups, and a flying training squadron. He’s also held a variety of joint, headquarters, and base-level roles. 

“I mention frequently to folks that logistics, inherently, is a world of disruption, and so something is going to happen somewhere to take you off plan,” Reed said. “There’s always another path. We’re always fighting for multiple ways to get things done.”

What’s unique about the contemporary challenges in and around the Red Sea, he noted, is that Transcom’s close commercial partners that enable some of its most vital mobility missions could be affected, and therefore need to remain informed.

“We have an established structure where we get together twice a year, at least — but when the need arises, we get together to address an issue. In this case, it’s the Red Sea. And so we will gather as much as required. And for a while there, it was about every two weeks where there was information-sharing,” Reed told DefenseScoop. 

“We would let them know what we knew. We would let them know the nature of the conflict as we saw it. We would get their concerns, and we would work together to make adjustments so that they could still [operate],” he explained.

A range of military officials connect and exchange information and data with industry leaders and representatives through this hub, which is referred to as Transcom’s “executive working group.”

“As things start out, there’s a level of sharing of understanding — and so folks just share what they know. We get an idea of what the environment is, we talk about the nature of the requirements or the needs, and then if there’s something to overcome, or some adjustment that needs to be made, we discuss that. Then, from there, it’s just professionals having a professional discussion about doing the profession,” Reed said.

During his keynote presentation at Sea-Air-Space, the general noted how, for the American military, logistics and sustainment have presented long-standing challenges for centuries. Now, however, those operations are happening in environments that are becoming more contested.

“In the Red Sea today, we have sailors — both active duty and civilian — who are sailing in harm’s way … and there’s some things that we need to change. So, from a Transcom perspective, this is one reason why you hear us being very vocal about returning to the oceans. This is one reason, when [President Donald Trump] mentioned that we were going to stand up [a U.S. ship-building support] office to figure out this problem, that all of us in this room got a little bit more excited. We all know that there’s several aspects to this. And you will find in me no greater champion and supporter to build for America, to establish supply chains that we depend on, to encourage the generations behind us to take the seas to sail and to help my shipmates get everything that they need to have,” Reed told the audience.

In the interview with DefenseScoop, he confirmed that his speech marked the first time that a keynote address had been delivered by a Transcom commander at the annual Sea-Air-Space summit.

“This is our first time. And before we do any keynotes, we spend a lot of time figuring out — who are we spending time with and why are they taking a chance on having us? And so, part of what we were able to determine and harvest, as was discussed earlier this week here, is that there is now a different national conversation in progress on maritime power,” Reed said.

“Obviously, that is a huge bulk of the capability that Transcom provides, although it’s not just organically, but with the commercial industry as well. And so everything that is currently swelling, we are right in the middle of it. We’ve been there, we’ve discussed it all along. And so, we have a lot to contribute,” he told DefenseScoop.

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Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell and Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, director of operations at the Joint Staff, supplied new details about those airstrikes and the broader operational vision at the Defense Department’s first on-camera press briefing under the new Trump administration. 

“The initial wave of strikes hit over 30 targets at multiple locations, degrading a variety of Houthi capabilities. These included terrorist training sites, unmanned aerial vehicle infrastructure, weapons manufacturing capabilities and weapon storage facilities. It also included a number of command-and-control centers, including a terrorist compound where we know several senior unmanned aerial vehicle experts were located,” Grynkewich said.

“On Sunday, strike operations continued against additional headquarters locations, weapon storage facilities, as well as detection capabilities that have been used to threaten maritime shipping in the past,” he noted. 

Officials emphasized that this operation will continue into the coming days and until President Donald Trump’s demands are met. They didn’t explicitly clarify all of the commander-in-chief’s expectations, but Parnell suggested that they’d begin with a pledge from the Houthis to stop all attacks against American ships. 

“We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. With that said, and this is a very important point, this is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East — this is about putting American interests first,” Parnell said. 

A series of Houthi-led UAV and missile attacks against military and commercial ships intensified in and around the Red Sea under the Biden administration, partially as a response to America’s support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

According to Parnell, the Houthis have launched one-way attack drones and missiles at U.S. warships more than 170 times, and at commercial vessels around 145 times, since 2023.

In response to reporters’ questions, the official did not specify what provoked this new wave of strikes. However, Grynkewich said that the U.S. is able to take action against a “much broader set of targets” due to support from Trump.    

“The other key differences are the delegation of authorities from the president through [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth] down to the operational commander. So, that allows us to achieve a tempo of operations where we can react to opportunities that we see on the battlefield in order to continue to put pressure on the Houthis,” Grynkewich noted.

The military is conducting battle damage assessments.

In terms of early estimates, Grynkewich suggested there were “dozens of military casualties so far” in this series of attacks — and despite the Houthis’ accusations, he said he’s seen no credible indications that any civilians were killed.

“There was an unmanned aerial vehicle facility that was struck with several key leaders. Those are key individuals who led their unmanned aerial vehicle enterprise and were some of the technical experts in there. So think of those types of individuals that we might be targeting as part of the command and control,” he said.

“We have destroyed command-and-control facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations. But again, this campaign is ongoing. It’s difficult to talk about all this stuff from the [Pentagon briefing room] podium, and we’re not going to say anything from the podium until we’re sure that we have it right,” Parnell added.

The officials declined to share whether the U.S. is looking at plans to send ground troops to Yemen or the surrounding areas at this time, or to go after targets associated with Iran.

“I certainly don’t want to get out in front of the commander-in-chief and the secretary as it pertains to clearance of strikes and who we’ll be targeting. But I think the president’s made very clear that all options are on the table,” Parnell told reporters.

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