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
I think a big factor is that a US ship or carrier group isn’t going to just stay on defense. They’re going to pound the area where the attacks are coming from. Look up the USS Wisconsin. North Korea was taking pot shots at it from a bunker on a hill, and the ship responded by removing the entire hill with artillery. The North Korean guns and the men operating them were likely destroyed in the first few seconds but the ship just pounded the area until there was nothing left. If you launched an overwhelming attack on a US ship, they’d likely track the origin point quickly and overwhelm your position and the surrounding towns with missiles and aircraft, and they would likely go way overboard to drive home the point that it was a very bad idea.
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