In war, the actual demand of military affairs and the application of actual combat are often the leading factors that stimulate the transformation of military equipment. These days, in the Red Sea incident, the United States' passivity and embarrassment are catalyzing a situation that the outside world did not expect, and the US Navy, which is full of "great power conflicts," seems to have suddenly opened its mind, and has also suffered from "phobia of insufficient firepower" and has begun to try to get rid of its "stinky problems."
Let's start with what's going on. According to the "engine" of the US defense news, the tensions in the Red Sea and the dilemma faced by the US Navy are prompting the United States to change some of its original thinking on ship construction. For example, the new generation of "Constellation" class frigates were pointed out as having "insufficient capabilities".
According to reports, although the "Constellation" class frigate has a displacement of more than 6,000 tons, with 32 Mk41 vertical hair and Aegis air defense systems, it is a "counterhand" that can take into account air defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine defense, and can temporarily serve as a destroyer and cruiser. The U.S. military previously had high expectations for this type of ship, and even ordered 20 ships in the first batch, which are scheduled to be delivered from the year after tomorrow, that is, in 2027.
However, after the outbreak of the Red Sea incident, the US Middle East forces found a serious problem, in the face of the Houthi UAVs and anti-ship missiles, although the matching close defense artillery and "laser**" can indeed shoot down the incoming UAV, but because of the range problem, it is often the last line of defense, and there is no fault tolerance at all. If you don't prevent it, you will suffer losses. At that time, the "Nika" was a US ship patrolling the Red Sea, and a single ship undertook 37 interception missions. The configuration of 32 vertical hair units exposes the most fundamental problem, that is, the vertical hair unit is limited, even if it is "one pit and four bombs", the amount that a single ship can carry is only 128 short-range air defense missiles, or simply 32 medium-range air defense missiles. This simply does not meet the defense needs of UAV swarm attacks.
And based on this display problem, the US Navy, which is full of "great power conflicts", has also begun to realize a real problem, UAVs with low performance can quickly deplete the air defense capability of the fleet through numerical superiority. And if it faces China and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the U.S. Navy may face a more highly autonomous drone swarm, which is far from being comparable to the Houthis' drone warfare methods. By that time, the US Navy will face "great challenges" in the number of vertical hair units and shipboard stocks.
Around this logic, the U.S. Navy further recognizes another problem, that is, the United States seriously lacks the ability to "reload at sea". Once the ship's anti-aircraft ammunition is depleted, it can only return for resupply. The only ones with resupply capability are the submarines of the US Navy. However, there are only two such submarine supply ships, which are completely incapable of coping with the high-intensity war situation.
Although, frankly, it seems to us that the current United States is beginning to sink into more conflicts, further depleting the national power of the United States. However, in a very realistic situation, the United States is not a fool, and it will also learn lessons from the reality and get rid of some "stinky problems." The experience of the United States in the Red Sea is bringing ideas to the demand for equipment for the United States. On this point, we should not look at the US military with a fixed perception. The U.S. military is now preparing for the Pacific War, and China still needs to remain vigilant about this.