Direct proof of use
The AIM-9X Sidewinder appears in the 2023 Red Sea Crisis through U.S. Navy documentation of F/A-18 loadout support for Red Sea combat operations. A Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division FY24 fact sheet says the command responded to an urgent Carrier Air Wing 3 request to support an F/A-18 loadout with four AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles for combat operations in the Red Sea.
A Naval Aviation News article by the Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft gives the operational reason for the request: in January, an F/A-18 and EA-18G program office received an urgent call from a squadron in the Red Sea supporting Operation Prosperity Guardian that wanted more AIM-9X missiles on its Super Hornets to improve capability against Houthi attacks on merchant vessels.
Sources: FY24 Fact Sheet NAWCWD, Acquisition Standards Can Be a Two-Way Street
Timeline
Operation Prosperity Guardian began on December 18, 2023, as a multinational maritime-security effort for the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after Houthi missile and UAV attacks threatened merchant shipping.
In January 2024, while U.S. naval aviation units were operating in the Red Sea, the F/A-18 and EA-18G program office received the urgent AIM-9X loadout request and produced a flight clearance in seven days. NAWCWD later summarized the same support as a rapid fleet delivery for Carrier Air Wing 3.
Sources: Operation Prosperity Guardian Statement, Acquisition Standards Can Be a Two-Way Street, FY24 Fact Sheet NAWCWD
Narrative
The documented AIM-9X role was short-range air defense from Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets operating with Carrier Air Wing 3. The missile was part of a defensive aviation response to Houthi anti-ship missiles, cruise missiles, and one-way attack UAVs that threatened shipping and coalition forces around the southern Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden.
Carrier Air Wing 3's Red Sea combat context is separately supported by official Navy unit histories and deployment reporting. Strike Fighter Squadron 32 states that its October 2023 deployment with USS Dwight D. Eisenhower spent most of the cruise in the Red Sea for Operations Inherent Resolve and Prosperity Guardian, where it employed air-to-air missiles against Houthi one-way attack drones. Carrier Strike Group Two reporting on VAQ-130 describes continuous combat operations in the southern Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden, and lists Carrier Air Wing 3's F/A-18 and EA-18G squadrons in the deployed force.
The public sources used here document AIM-9X carriage and loadout support for Red Sea operations, but they do not identify a specific drone or missile intercept as an AIM-9X shot by missile type. Claims about individual shootdowns should therefore stay at the broader air-to-air missile or naval air-defense level unless a more specific official or imagery source becomes available.
Sources: Acquisition Standards Can Be a Two-Way Street, FY24 Fact Sheet NAWCWD, VFA-32 Squadron History, VAQ-130 Returns from Deployment
