125,000 pounds of bombs dropped on ISIS-Somalia as U.S. Navy flexes global force projection; Strike Group also intercepted 160 Houthi drones in Red Sea before pivoting to Mediterranean.
The USS Harry S. Truman has just cemented its name in military history.
In what Navy officials now call the largest airstrike ever launched from an aircraft carrier, the Truman’s strike group dropped a staggering 125,000 pounds of precision-guided munitions on targets in Somalia — a direct assault on the expanding ISIS-Somalia network that has tripled in size over the past 18 months.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Admiral James Kilby, the U.S. Navy’s acting chief of operations, confirmed the scale and significance of the mission. “This was a historic kinetic operation,” Kilby declared. “It was about neutralizing a growing threat before it reached our shores.”
The Truman’s deployment was initially routine — a standard 6th Fleet patrol. But as the war in the Red Sea escalated, and ISIS-Somalia’s numbers surged to 1,500 fighters (60% of them foreign jihadists), the Truman became the tip of the spear in AFRICOM’s most aggressive air campaign in a decade.
In total, AFRICOM has executed 25 strikes since January — and that number is on pace to shatter the 2019 record of 63 strikes.
But Somalia was only part of the Truman’s legacy this year.
Before heading south, the Truman spent five months battling Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, conducting 670 air and naval strikes, and intercepting 160 drones and missiles aimed at U.S. and allied vessels. “They are hunting our ships,” Kilby warned. “This is not a low-tier threat.”
Now, with Yemen’s airspace scorched and ISIS bunkers leveled in Somalia, the Truman and its strike group have entered the Mediterranean for NATO’s high-stakes war drills — a show of readiness as Russia looms and tensions simmer in the Eastern flank.
Despite the ceasefire with the Houthis announced by President Trump on May 6, the U.S. has made one thing clear: peace talks won’t mean passive defense. The Truman’s firepower sent a resounding global message — America’s carrier fleet still reigns supreme in projecting force across oceans, deserts, and failed states.
As for when the Truman returns home? The Pentagon isn’t saying. And maybe that’s the point.
