USN munitions expenditures in the Red Sea

[Dawes]

Sounds expensive:

"The U.S. Navy’s surface fleet has fired nearly 400 individual munitions while battling Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea over the past 15 months. That includes the firing of 120 SM-2 missiles, 80 SM-6 missiles, 160 rounds from destroyers and cruisers’ five-inch main guns, as well as a combined 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles."

https://www.twz.com/news-features/navy-just-disclosed-how-many-of-each-of-its-surface-to-air-missiles-it-fired-during-red-sea-fight

Edited January 15 by Dawes

[sunday]

Expensive, yes, and it is likely those figures could make naval planners think about the wisdom of having ships with only 16 or 32 VLS cells, even quad-packed with ESSM.

Seems the times of saturation attacks as in Clancy's Red Storm Rising are back.

Edited January 15 by sunday

[shep854]

50 minutes ago, sunday said:

Expensive, yes, and it is likely those figures could make naval planners think about the wisdom of having ships with only 16 or 32 VLS cells, even quad-packed with ESSM.

Seems the times of saturation attacks as in Clancy's Red Storm Rising are back.

Saturation attacks were supposed to have ended with the 'First Cold War' (nod to the Weapon Detective YouTube channel') sine the USSR was the only opponent with the capacity to generate them.  Funny how tech (or opponents) doesn't stand still...

Edited January 15 by shep854

[Mighty_Zuk]

Saturation attacks never disappeared. Just adversaries capable of using such tactics laid dormant until fairly recently, and some still are.

 

It could also be argued that CENTCOM went the expensive route, and TLAM'd the Houthis into oblivion instead of using dirt cheap JDAMs. And by oblivion I mean INDOPACOM's TLAM inventory, not the Houthis. Such judgment could have implications on how CENTCOM also chose to utilize its inventory of SAMs.

Perhaps CENTCOM is doing god's work and pressuring congress to buy more munitions by depleting them?

Edited January 17 by Mighty_Zuk

[Ssnake]

My money is on incompetence/"didn't know better"/"used what was at hand"/"didn't care how costly it was".