FIRST Woman Naval Aviator VICTORY
The first American woman to win an air-to-air combat victory was a US Navy fighter pilot who shot down an attack drone belonging to the Houthis, a Yemeni Shia rebel organization supported by Iran.
CNN reports that the pilot, whose identity was withheld by the Navy, is a member of Strike Fighter Squadron 32 and piloted an F/A-18 Super Hornet off the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Her squadron, known as the “Flying Swordsmen,” participated in operations Inherent Resolve and Prosperity Guardian, which targeted attacks on international commerce by both ISIS and the Houthis, flying roughly 1,500 combat flights and accruing over 3,000 combat hours, according to the source.
This resulted in the female pilot’s spectacular destruction of a single Houthi attack drone, one of the group’s many drones that CNN stated were deployed to attack civilian commerce ships in the Red Sea among other locations.
According to a Navy statement, “during one mission, VFA-32 became home to the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact.”
During the nine-month deployment, the Swordsmen also led two of seven strikes against Houthi ground targets, destroying multiple weapons sites as well as command and control centers.
In Sana’a, Yemen, last week, supporters of the Houthi movement brandished firearms during a demonstration against the US and Israel. During its nine-month mission, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower served as the pilot’s squadron’s home base.
Jason Hoch, their commanding officer, commended the squadron for its accomplishment under “extremely demanding conditions.” Hoch stated, “We have repeatedly demonstrated the unparalleled adaptability that a carrier strike group offers in combat.”
According to CNN, throughout the assault, the group—which also included the cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the destroyers USS Mason and USS Gravely—launched 135 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 155 conventional missiles at more than 460 Houthi sites in Yemen.
Thirty years have passed since US Navy fighter pilot Kara Hultgreen became the first female pilot to fly off an aircraft carrier with her air-to-air kill. Additionally, 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-surface weapons were fired by Eisenhower aircraft.
The Houthis claim they are using drones and missiles to target Red Sea shipping lanes in an attempt to exact revenge on Israel for its invasion of Gaza. However, the rebel group, which is in control of a large portion of Yemen in the Middle East, has faced strong resistance from the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to CNN, the woman pilot’s success occurred roughly thirty years after Lt. Kara Hultgreen flew the fabled F-14 Tomcat off the USS Abraham Lincoln, making her the first carrier-based female fighter pilot in the Navy. Since 1994, there have been female aviators on the Eisenhower.
