The U.S. military, which is currently overwhelmed with the threat of drones in the Red Sea region, exposes a fatal weakness of theirs.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense**, during a recent escort operation in the Red Sea, the U.S. Navy's "Aegis" destroyer successfully shot down 38 Houthi suicide drones and a number of anti-ship missiles in just a few days. On December 16 alone, the USS Carney intercepted 14 suicide drones launched by the Houthis.
The United States succeeded in intercepting the Houthi suicide drones and anti-ship missiles, and although it was victorious, it also paid a considerable price. Due to the high cost of American anti-aircraft missiles, the cost of this interception operation is quite high. Although the U.S. military has not announced what kind of missiles will be used to intercept air targets, it is certain that the cost will be high.
The ** of the standard "-2 anti-aircraft missile is between 1.2 million and 2.1 million dollars, and different batches and models will lead to ** differences. The cost of the Jet Sea Sparrow Modified ESSM ship-to-air missile is $2.46 million, while the Standard-6 ship-to-air missile** is as high as $4.37 million. In addition, the "Standard"-3 anti-missile missile is as high as $14.51 million. The suicide drones** used by the Houthis range from $500 to $2,000, so whatever missile is used to strike will cause serious losses from an economic point of view.
Although we emphasize that this is not just an economic issue, because the economic value of protecting a ** or a cargo ship far exceeds the value of the missiles themselves. However, we must recognize that the US military successfully intercepted air targets, but also exposed its own weaknesses.
Ships have a limited number of anti-aircraft launch units, for example, the Burke-class destroyers are equipped with 96 vertical launch cells. These units are not only loaded with anti-aircraft missiles, but also Tomahawk missiles for land attacks and Asroc anti-submarine torpedoes, among others. However, the adversary adopted the "swarm tactic" of UAVs, which led to the United States first consuming a large number of anti-aircraft missiles, making it easy to become a target for the adversary's attack.
The destroyer USS Carney managed to shoot down 14 drones, and it is speculated that the number of missiles used may exceed 14, but there are still remaining anti-aircraft missiles. However, the battle did not face a real opponent. In the event of a real adversary, the opponent may send fighter jets to strike in the air after a drone attack, attacking with missiles, which will be a difficult challenge to deal with.
This part of the Red Sea is actually quite special, it is a narrow body of water, and the Houthis who launch drones from land can easily fly to the vicinity of the US military, and these drones do not need to travel long distances. When the U.S. ** ship is operating in the open sea and away from land, the range of the small suicide drone may not be able to cover deep-sea targets.
However, for those large countries that are able to create UAVs, this problem is not a problem at all. First, they can produce drones that have a long range, are suicidal, and are inexpensiveSecondly, they can also use submarine torpedo tubes or vertical launch systems to launch drone swarms under water, massively launch drones from relatively close distances, and carry out harassing attacks on American destroyers or aircraft carriers.
When the U.S. anti-aircraft missiles run out, air strikes and missile attacks launched from submarines will leave the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet powerless to deal with, even if the ships are equipped with more anti-aircraft missiles. It should be noted that even if the US submarine is advanced, it cannot reload missiles during sea operations. Once the missiles are exhausted, they can only return to the home port for the vertical launch system to reload the missiles. If the drone consumes a vertically launched missile, these ** will become defenseless.
In the future, in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait, the use of drones against US aircraft carriers and destroyers is obviously a viable tactic, and the drone operations of the Houthis provide us with useful tips.