Direct proof of use
The Seahawk helicopter family is directly documented in the 2023 Red Sea Crisis through U.S. Central Command's December 31, 2023 statement on the Maersk Hangzhou incident. CENTCOM said U.S. Navy helicopters from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Gravely responded after four Houthi small boats attacked the container ship, came under fire from the boats, and returned fire, sinking three of the four boats.
Variant-specific public evidence covers both major current Seahawk branches. Official Navy imagery documented MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters in Operation Prosperity Guardian support tasks aboard USS Mason and around the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. Later aviation reporting identified an MH-60R Romeo Seahawk attached to the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group as having shot down a Houthi UAV during the Red Sea campaign.
Sources: CENTCOM Small Boats Statement, USNI Helo Crews Red Sea Attack, DVIDS Mason MH-60S OPG, DVIDS Mason Eisenhower VERTREP, TWZ MH-60R Drone Shootdown
Timeline
Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced on December 18, 2023 as a multinational maritime-security initiative for the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Four days later, DVIDS placed an MH-60S Seahawk aboard USS Mason while the destroyer operated in the Red Sea in support of the operation.
On December 31, 2023, CENTCOM documented the first public Seahawk-family combat event in this record: Navy helicopters from Eisenhower and Gravely returned fire after Houthi boats attacked Maersk Hangzhou and fired on the helicopters. In January and February 2024, official imagery showed HSC-7 MH-60S aircraft conducting vertical replenishment and search-and-rescue training in the Red Sea. In January 2025, The War Zone reported Navy leadership remarks identifying a Red Sea MH-60R drone shootdown that had occurred about a month earlier.
Sources: Operation Prosperity Guardian Statement, DVIDS Mason MH-60S OPG, CENTCOM Small Boats Statement, DVIDS Mason Eisenhower VERTREP, DVIDS Eisenhower SAR Training, TWZ MH-60R Drone Shootdown
Narrative
In the Red Sea Crisis, Seahawk-family helicopters operated as shipboard aircraft for U.S. Navy surface combatants and carrier strike groups. The directly supported combat role was force protection and counter-surface defense during the Maersk Hangzhou incident, where Navy helicopters engaged Houthi small boats after the boats fired on them.
The MH-60R-specific public record adds a counter-UAV role, but the available reporting did not publicly identify the drone type, exact date, squadron, or weapon used in that engagement. The MH-60S-specific public record supports fielding and support use, including vertical replenishment and search-and-rescue training, rather than a documented strike or interception by that variant.
Read together, the sources support a Seahawk-family conflict-use page rather than a single-variant event record: the parent SH-60 Seahawk catalog entry covers legacy and current Navy H-60 maritime variants, while the Red Sea evidence separates family-level helicopter combat use, MH-60R counter-UAV use, and MH-60S shipboard support use.
Sources: CENTCOM Small Boats Statement, TWZ MH-60R Drone Shootdown, DVIDS Mason Eisenhower VERTREP, DVIDS Eisenhower SAR Training
