Project Sword
$2,000 vs $2 million, although the U.S. military is a local tyrant, it naturally can't afford to burn so much money, and with the U.S. aircraft carrier battle group unfolding in the waters of the Red Sea, the "Red Sea Ship Attack Battle" of the Yemeni Houthis has also been fully escalated, from the original "missile vs drone" to a new stage of "Super Hornet vs drone".
The US aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" and its battle group have already started in the Red Sea, and the "ship raid battle" has ushered in the second round).
A few days ago,U.S. ** Command(uscentcom) posted on its official social accountsAccording to the report, the US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Raban (DDG-58) and the carrier-based F A-18 fighter jets on the CVN-79 USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier shot down a total of 12 drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles in the southern waters of the Red Sea. The U.S. military believes the missiles were fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels, while the U.S. military says there are no ships damaged in the area and no personnel**.
The U.S. Burke-class destroyer launched anti-aircraft missiles to intercept Houthi drones and missiles, with a remarkable record).
In fact, before the US aircraft carrier battle group was launched in the Red Sea, the US military had deployed two "Arleigh Burke" class destroyers in the Red Sea specifically to intercept missiles and suicide drones launched by the Houthis, and from a tactical point of view, these two destroyers have undoubtedly achieved quite excellent results, for example, the US destroyer "Carney" shot down 38 targets in about a month. To a certain extent, this also shows the strong combat effectiveness of the US Navy's "maritime supremacy", after all, it is not easy to fight the Houthi air strikes on the Red Sea alone. However, although the U.S. Navy has achieved quite good results, this battle is a bit unsuccessful. BecauseIntercepting Houthi drones and missiles is too much money!
The US ESSM anti-aircraft missile, which is as high as $1.8 million, but has a range of only about 50 km).
Although the 6-barreled 20-mm "Phalanx" close-in defense gun and ESSM anti-aircraft missiles carried by the U.S. military have the ability to effectively intercept Houthi drones and missiles, and even the U.S. military's MK-45 127-mm naval gun has a certain air defense capability, but the range of these ** is generally very short, such as the "Phalanx" The firing range of the close defense gun is only 3 kilometers, and the anti-aircraft range of the MK-45 naval gun is only about 18 kilometers, while the effective range of the ESSM missile can reach 50 kilometers, but it is still too close.
A wide variety of Houthi drones, the main focus is a cheap and large amount)
To sum up, although the U.S. military has not announced what kind of drones and missiles it uses to intercept the Houthis, the outside world, including American experts, generally believes thatThe US military uses the "Standard-2" anti-aircraft missile, because the effective range of the "Standard-2" anti-aircraft missile is between 170 240 km, so that even if the US destroyer hides outside the range of the Houthi anti-ship missile, it can effectively intercept various UAVs and missiles of the Houthis by virtue of the range advantage of the "Standard-2" missile**, butThe Standard-2 missile** is extremely expensive, costing $2.1 million per unit, while the Houthi suicide drone is widely thought to cost only about $2,000Even a relatively advanced version, similar to Iran's "Conqueror-136", costs only $20,000. Using $2.1 million missiles to intercept $2,000 drones is a loss-making tactic that even the U.S. military can't afford.
Since the Houthis also have a large number of land-based anti-ship missiles, the US ** team does not dare to get too close to Yemeni territory for fear of being hit)
In response to this situation, the US military has also made two-handed preparations, on the one hand, it has roped in Britain, France, Germany, and other European allies to participate in the so-called "Prosperity Guardian" escort operation, organized escort groups, and shared the pressure on the US military with the help of the navies of allied countriesOn the other hand, it is to drive the aircraft carrier into the Red Sea, and then use the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier to carry out air defense and escort missions。The specific tactic is to use F A-18 fighter jets to carry air-to-air missiles to patrol over the Red Sea, and once they detect drones or cruise missiles launched by the Houthis, they can intercept them with airborne air-to-air missiles or cannons.
The US F A-18 fighter can carry a large number of air-to-air missiles, intercept multiple targets at one time, and the combat efficiency is much higher than that of shipborne anti-aircraft missiles, and the cost is lower).
Although the cost of the F A-18 carrier-based fighter is obviously much higher than that of the "Standard-2" anti-aircraft missile, the fighter has the characteristics of being reusable, and can carry several hours of patrol per takeoff, and can also carry multiple air-to-air missiles to intercept multiple targets, and the combat efficiency is much higher than that of the ship's anti-aircraft missile. With the F A-18 to intercept drones and cruise missiles, U.S. destroyers can save valuable anti-aircraft missiles for intercepting Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles
According to reports,The unit price of the AIM-9X combat missile in service with the US military is about $350,000, while the ** price of the AIM-120 air-to-air missile is about $1 million, although it is still much more expensive than the Houthi drone, but at least it is a lot cheaper than the "Standard-2" missile, so that the US military can "take a breather".
If everyone does not go from the Red Sea, then what is the point of the escort operation of the US military?）
However, in the long run, it is not realistic for the US military to carry out air defense escort missions in the Red Sea waters for a long time, because its cost is too high, and now the world's major shipping giants have chosen to detour to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and abandon the Red Sea route, so the US military escort is only lonely in the end. As for whether the world's major shipping companies can restore confidence and restore shipping lanes, we will wait and see.