I’ve read about many instances of Houthi drone attacks and missiles being successfully intercepted by US warships. I have no doubt that these ships are capable of completely neutralizing these types of attacks in a vacuum… but given the cost disparity between the drones/missiles and the defense equipment used to stop them… what’s stopping the opposition from spamming so many at once that the ships can’t keep up?
Instead of repeated, futile attacks, what would happen if the opposition stock piled all of their resources and launched them at once, in waves, one right after the other?
Surely there must be some finite limit to the amount of defensive ammunition (not sure of the right term here) the ships are able to carry at sea.
Is it just a matter of the ships being so well equipped that any force capable of exhausting their supplies is simply impractical- even if the drones are pennies on the dollar in terms of comparative cost?
In: Engineering
Oceans are, it is worth noting, very large. This makes it quite hard to find things on them. Cheap, low cost drones have limited range and sensor systems, making locating a target hard.
Once a target is found, you must reach it. A relatively slow modern warship is capable of sustaining a speed of at least 37 kilometers per hour. This is faster then most cheap, low cost drones. Once detected, simply driving away from a drone swarm can prevent an effective attack.
Beyond that, there are electronic countermeasures. Very powerful jammers can prevent low cost drones from effectively operating and disable electronic sensors, preventing them from functioning.
Last, their are point defense systems able to destroy drones like the RIM-116 missile and radar directed guns, and coming into use are things like the HELIOS, an absoloutly tortured acronym from Lockheed Martin for a anti-drone/anti-missile laser.
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