After months fighting Houthis on the USS Eisenhower, sailors face a new kind of sea threat

Sailors aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower who have spent four months straight at sea defending against the Iranian-backed Houthis now face a new kind of threat.

It's "more of an unknown threat that we don’t have a lot of intel on, that could be extremely lethal — an unmanned surface vessel," said Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, commander of Carrier Strike Group Two, of which the Eisenhower is the flagship. The Houthis "have ways of obviously controlling them just like they do the (unmanned aerial vehicles), and we have very little little fidelity as to all the stockpiles of what they have USV-wise," Miguez said.

The Houthis began firing on U.S. military and commercial vessels after a deadly blast at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17, a few days after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The rebels have said they will continue firing on commercial and military vessels transiting the region until Israel ceases its military operations inside Gaza.