Footage of purported Houthi missile attacks on USS Eisenhower is from video game
Footage is from ARMA 3 video game
CLAIM
Footage published on YouTube and Facebook purported to show a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, being struck by Houthi rockets.
BACKGROUND
A video was posted to this YouTube page on June 1 claiming to show “USS Navy Dwight D.Eisenhower CVN-69 has been hit by Houthi movement!”
The footage shows a barrage of rockets launching through the air and appearing to hit a large vessel in the water. The headline is repeated in Chinese and the video features a Chinese description below, which translates to: “The U.S. Middle East policy is bound to be adjusted. The Biden administration is facing tremendous pressure, and the planet is on the eve of drastic changes! Where is the world going?”
The footage is low-resolution and features Chinese text on screen, which appears to be a consistent style for footage posted by the same channel. Some cropped out text in Arabic is also visible, suggesting the footage was originally published elsewhere and reproduced. According to the channel details on YouTube, the uploader is based in the United States.
The same channel later uploaded a second video claiming that “Houthi movement hit USS Navy Eisenhower CVN-69 again(1st June)”.
Parts of the same footage could also be found on Facebook here, where it bears a news logo for the ‘Arabic Journal’ and is mixed into a package with other material.
The Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched attacks on shipping vessels since November in response to Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The attacks have prompted many shipping companies to reroute their vessels to sail around the southern tip of Africa, adding 10 to 14 days of travel at a significant cost, according to media reports.
Increasingly, the threat of strikes has been levelled at U.S. military operations in the area. On May 17, the Houthi rebels claimed they had shot down an American drone over eastern Yemen the previous evening. The U.S. did not immediately comment on the claim.
Yemen’s Houthis also claimed they launched missile attacks on the Eisenhower in late May. Most recently, on Saturday, June 22, a Yemen army spokesman was cited in Iranian state media as saying Yemeni forces directly targeted the ship with ballistic and cruise missiles.
The U.S. has rebuffed the claims and confirmed on June 22 that the Eisenhower is ending its mission and will be replaced in the region by the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. The Eisenhower is currently returning to base, Central Command said.
METHOD
To uncover the source of the clip, we ran frames of the footage through a reverse image search.
This brought up a higher resolution version of the same footage, published to YouTube in 2022 and titled: “Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier Sunk by the Ukrainian high-precision VLS Missiles – ARMA 3”. The video has nearly 780,000 views on the platform.
The description beneath the video has a disclaimer in bold: “NOT Real footages, just arma 3 gameplay.” Arma 3 is a combat simulation video game.
Frames from both of the Houthi strike clips from YouTube and part of the video posted to Facebook can be identified in the nearly 12-minute gameplay video.
Additionally, journalists from the Associated Press boarded the ship and spoke to the captain, who directly debunked the claims that they had ever been hit in any of the claimed Houthi strikes.
He told them in the article published June 17: “I think it’s been about two or three times in the past six months we’ve allegedly been sunk, which we have not been. It is almost comical at this point.”
RATING
The footage does not show a Houthi strike on the USS Eisenhower and is instead a screen recording of a military simulation video game.
SOURCES
认知升维讲习所 (2024). USS Navy Dwight D.Eisenhower CVN-69 has been hit by Houthi movement！突發！美國空母艾森豪威爾號遭胡塞武裝重創！. YouTube. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
认知升维讲习所 (2024). Houthi movement hit USS Navy Eisenhower CVN-69 again(1st June)胡塞武裝6月1日夜再次攻擊艾森豪威爾號！. YouTube. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Donald Baker – INTEL-DROP: 01JUN24, Exclusive: USS Dwight… [online] [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
Reuters (2024). Yemen’s Houthis say they launched attack on US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in Red Sea. [online] Reuters. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
IRNA (2024). Yemen says USS Eisenhower hit by ballistic missiles. [online] IRNA English. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Fair winds and following seas to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (IKE CSG) as they return home to their families. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
GAMBRELL, J. (2024). U.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier counters false Houthi claims. [online] AP News. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].
USMC (2022). Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier Sunk by the Ukrainian high-precision VLS Missiles – ARMA 3. YouTube. [Accessed 24 Jun. 2024].