HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — It’s a big change in leadership for the Navy amid a busy operation overseas. After the ceremony, a lot was said about the air strikes the U.S. military conducted in Yemen just yesterday.
Vice Admiral Doug Perry was sworn in Friday morning onboard USS Harry S. Truman in a solemn ceremony. Now taking over 2nd Fleet, Joint Forces Command Norfolk and Combined Joint Operations from the Sea-Centre of Excellence. He’s also a hometown boy.
“I lived in Ghent on Baldwin Avenue,” Perry said. “My first job was delivering The Virginian-Pilot.”
He’s taking command in a moment that is seeing high U.S. involvement overseas with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, the conflict in Gaza.
“So we are on a cycle to learn from these operations and in fact, we will certainly, I think, learn a lot,” Perry said.
Operation Prosperity Guardian that began Dec. 18 is ramping up. Tuesday, U.S. and U.K. military conducted joint strikes against a number of targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The strikes are meant to “disrupt” and “degrade” Houthi capabilities in launching attacks in the Red Sea.
“We fired multiple missiles at multiple targets in Yemen because this kind of conduct just cannot continue,” said Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.
“This kind of conduct” refers to the onslaught of attacks by drone and anti-ship missiles seen by our carriers in the Red Sea.
“On Tuesday, they actually deterred over 30 attacks by UAVs as well as three anti-ship ballistic missiles that were fired at the fleet as well,” Del Toro said.
More countries are joining the operation. Del Toro says, for good reason.
“Ten percent of the fuel alone, the oil flows through the Suez Canal,” Del Toro said. “Over a trillion dollars in goods every single day flows through the Red Sea. So, this is impacting over 50 countries.”
Del Toro said this operation is sustainable — the Department of the Navy has invested largely over several decades, modernizing their vessels, making them nuclear-powered so they can stay out to sea for long stretches of time.
This year also marks the 75th anniversary of NATO.
