In the narrow shipping lanes off Yemen, U.S. and British destroyers have spent more than a year firing, jamming and maneuvering to keep missiles and drones away from tankers and container ships. The tempo is unlike anything the surface fleet has seen in decades, with crews on Arleigh Burke class ships and allied frigates treating every radar contact as a potential split second life or death decision. At its core, this is a story about how modern navies cope when cheap, expendable weapons meet exquisite, expensive defenses.
What has emerged in the Red Sea is a live fire laboratory for the future of air and missile defense, where traditional interceptors, electronic warfare and emerging directed energy systems are being blended in real time. I see a clear pattern in the reporting: destroyer defense systems can and do stop incoming Yemeni attacks, but the way they do it is already shifting under the pressure of cost, magazine depth and the sheer volume of threats.
From first SM‑2 shots to a sustained missile duel
The current phase of this fight began when a U.S. destroyer used SM‑2 interceptors to bring down three land attack missiles launched from Yemen, a moment that signaled the Houthis were willing to reach far beyond their coastline. That early engagement showed that the Navy would lean on its long range surface to air missiles to protect ships and regional partners, even when the incoming weapons were assessed as not directly threatening U.S. territory. It also underscored how much of the burden would fall on a handful of forward deployed hulls sitting between Yemen and vital sea lanes, rather than on distant air bases or ground batteries, as detailed in reporting on the three land attack.
Since that first salvo, the volume has climbed sharply. U.S. Navy destroyers have shot down 38 drones and multiple missiles in the Red Sea in just a few months, and the Navy has fired around 100 Standard Series, a rate that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. For more than a year, U.S. warships have been shooting down missiles and drones off the coast of Yemen, often in coordination with airstrikes against Houthi targets further inland.
Allied ships under fire and the cost of keeping sea lanes open
The Houthis have not limited their fire to American hulls. U.S. and UK forces have jointly reported shooting down 15 drones launched from Yemen, with officials warning that the Threat to trade has grown as container ships are attacked or drawn into missile fire in the Red Sea. In one widely cited episode, three cargo ships were hit by Houthi missiles while a nearby U.S. destroyer downed drones, an incident that Israeli spokesperson Daniel Hagari described in Tel Aviv while stressing that neither ship had a connection to Israel.
British warships have been pulled into the same fight. The destroyer Diamond became the first Royal Navy warship to shoot down a threat from the air since 1991, a symbolic reminder that high end air defense is no longer a theoretical Cold War mission. In a separate engagement, UK and U.S. ships together wiped out a storm of drones and missiles, with reports noting that All of the weapons were supplied by All of the Iran made systems used by the Houthi rebels who control part of Yemen and have been engaged in a war with the Un backed government.
Magazine depth, money and the “$2 million vs $2,000” problem
Behind every successful intercept lies a brutal arithmetic. Analysts have pointed out that the Navy is often firing multimillion dollar SM‑2 or SM‑6 missiles at drones that may cost a few thousand dollars to assemble, a dynamic that has already driven the service to expend more air defense missiles in 15 months than in the previous 30 years. One assessment of a January engagement calculated that at three SM‑2s, that is $6.2 million to down a handful of incoming weapons, with Of the 18 drones intercepted, the Navy destroyers accounted for a dozen. It is an effective way to keep crews safe, but it is not a sustainable way to fight a long war of attrition.
The broader pattern is similar across the region. In the Middle East, the U.S. military has spent billions of dollars of munitions shooting down or pre emptively attacking cheap UAVs launched by comparatively weak military powers, a trend highlighted in analysis of how Middle East drone defense has evolved. When I compare that to a household budget, it is as if a family were forced to buy a new luxury SUV every time a neighbor’s kid threw a rock at their window. The imbalance is not just about money, it is about magazine depth and the risk that a destroyer might run low on interceptors just as a more sophisticated salvo arrives.
Electronic warfare and the rise of “silent kills”
That cost pressure is one reason crews have leaned harder on non kinetic tools. The SLQ‑32 is a destroyer’s electronic ears, capable of detecting the transmissions of a foreign jet or identifying the seeker on an incoming missile, and documents show that The SLQ suite has been central to the Navy’s electronic warfare non kinetic capabilities in the Red Sea since the first clashes near the Gulf of Aden in October 2023, as described in reporting on The SLQ. By jamming or confusing guidance systems, destroyers have managed to defeat some drones without firing a shot, preserving missiles for when they are truly needed.
US destroyers operating in the Red Sea last year defeated Houthi drones without firing, using these electronic warfare tools to change how the Navy expects its warships to battle enemy threats, a shift captured in accounts that urge readers to Follow Jake Epstein for details. I see this as the quiet revolution of the campaign: the most important “shots” are often invisible, and the crews who master the electromagnetic spectrum may matter as much as those who load the vertical launch cells.
Aegis, lasers and the next generation of ship defense
All of this rests on the backbone of the Aegis combat system, which integrates radar, a vertical launch system and a combat management suite on Arleigh Burke class destroyers and Ticonderoga class cruisers. Aegis is the Navy’s integrated air defense system, and its ballistic missile defense variant, described in congressional material on The Aegis, gives these ships a capability for conducting BMD operations that has now been repurposed daily against cruise missiles and drones. Senior officers have acknowledged that the Navy had a learning curve in finding the right weapons mix in the Red Sea fight, an evolution described in interviews about how Aegis commanders adjusted tactics.
Looking ahead, high energy lasers are the most likely way out of the cost trap. Analysts tracking directed energy note that the 60-plus confirmed intercepts of drones and missiles that targeted U.S. Navy warships and commercial vessels in the Red Sea have already spurred investment in shipboard lasers that could engage similar threats at a fraction of the cost per shot, as outlined in assessments that the 60-plus intercepts have driven urgency. If those systems mature on schedule, I expect the Navy to cut its reliance on expensive interceptors in similar asymmetric conflicts by at least 40 percent within five years, especially if crews continue to refine the blend of jamming, lasers and missiles they have pioneered in the Red Sea.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
