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German Navy Confirms Its Supersized Frigate Will Avoid the Red Sea
- caekislove 2y agoIt's best to always avoid sending your warships into a war zone. They might get damaged, after all!
- pkaye 2y agoJust like nobody wants their new car or couch to get dinged or damaged until it eventually happens and you learn to just accept it.
- rasz 2y agoLast time they shot few times at the wrong thing https://cimsec.org/analyzing-the-german-frigate-hessens-near-miss-of-a-u-s-drone-in-the-red-sea/ https://cimsec.org/analyzing-the-german-frigate-hessens-near... and then realized there is no more ammo https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/03/missile-woes-for-german-navy/ https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/03/missile-woes-fo... They might have a ship, but it has nothing to shoot targets with.
- teslabox 2y agoUS Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was said to have observed, "There are only two kinds of ships: submarines and targets". In the modern era of low-cost drones and missiles, all surface ships are sitting ducks. The US Navy has missiles to shoot down aircraft and missiles, but these were designed to shoot down expensive Soviet aircraft. I think these missiles cost $1-2million each. A modern inexpensive attack drone goes for <$10,000. A $2M missile vs. a $2,000 drone: Pentagon worried over cost of Houthi attacks - https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/19/missile-drone-pentagon-houthi-attacks-iran-00132480 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/19/missile-drone-penta... Warships that can deploy helicopters are still useful for disaster response: When Disaster Strikes, Send the Enterprise: https://sendtheenterprise.org/ https://sendtheenterprise.org/ Edit: "According to the U.S. Navy, the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group expended 155 surface-to-air missiles, 135 land-attack cruise missiles, nearly 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-surface weapons during what it called a "historic" combat deployment." - US Aircraft Carrier's Near Miss With Missile Fired by Middle East Rebels, https://www.newsweek.com/us-news-aircraft-carrier-missile-fired-middle-east-rebels-red-sea-1970363 https://www.newsweek.com/us-news-aircraft-carrier-missile-fi...
- mattlondon 2y agoYeah this has been an interesting development regarding drones. I guess some sort of laser thing is probably most viable now if you consider a swarm of say 50-100 cheap drones. I would imagine they'd be susceptible to relatively lower levels of laser power than e.g an ICBM, although they they are of course a smaller target
- themadturk 2y agoApparently not completely sitting ducks, since no American naval ship has been damaged by drones. But the "conventional" anti-aircraft weaponry is like shooting a fly with a howitzer (almost literally). More CIWS systems and a rapid-fire laser or two seem like they might be effective and perhaps lower-cost.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> In the modern era of low-cost drones and missiles, all surface ships are sitting ducks This is a blip. Anti-ship missiles were expensive and sophisticated so we had expensive, sophisticated defeneses. Drones disrupted that calculus for a minute. Now low-cost anti-drone technologies are being deployed. There is a reason the world's largest navies are building ships at a record clip.
- mrandish 2y ago> According to the Spiegel, “other nations operating with warships [in the Red Sea] reported that escort was currently not possible.” So, basically "Dear German Navy - Unfortunately, our warships are too busy protecting non-warships to protect your warship. Sincerely, Your Allies"