Warrior talked to leading expert Prof. David Stupples from the City of St. George University of London about Counter-Drone challenges and tactics in the Iran War
The pace at which Iran is losing surface ships and mines seems faster than the world can follow, yet Iran still poses a significant military threat in the Strait of Hormuz for several key reasons. Of course “sea mines” remain a substantial threat, despite advanced U.S. Navy mine-hunting technology, yet they can still be found by undersea drones and mine-clearing surface ships.
U.S. Central Command recently released video of successful U.S. strikes on Iranian mine-laying vessels in waters in or near the Strait of Hormuz, yet the mine-threat likely remains quite pressing as the U.S. Navy considers its combat options.
Large Warships Vulnerable?
Drone swarms and small boat swarms are also certain to present a serious threat to both commercial and military traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz. In large measure, the reason pertains to proximity, meaning the short distances between the Iranian coastline and the waterways of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is only 35-to-60 miles wide, a condensed area quite vulnerable to drone and small boat attacks.
Both drones and small boats attack with a similar operational concept, as they are designed to simply “overwhelm” ship defenses by blanketing a target area from multiple angles and points of attack at one time. Large groups of swarming small boats, for example, is something Iran has used for many years to harass or intimidate military and commercial vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz. While small boats armed with guns might quickly be destroyed by deck-mounted guns on Navy ships, the challenge simply becomes one of “volume” and “area.” Large numbers of small boats, potentially filled with explosives, could attack a large surface ship at one time to create more targets and more angles of approach than deck mounted guns could successfully track, target or destroy. The Iranians could potentially fill large numbers of drone-boats with explosives and launch them at large surface warships ill-equipped to stop large numbers of them at one time.
Countering Small Boats
Is there a viable defense against small boat swarms? U.S. Navy drones, helicopters and surveillance planes could create a substantial measure of difference; groups of small boats would need to be “seen” and “destroyed” from the air before coming within striking range of large surface warships. U.S. Navy MH-60R helicopters and ship-launched drones could conduct reconnaissance missions through a large area to generate a protective envelope in which approaching small boats could potentially be neutralized by air-to-surface weapons such as guns, missiles and rockets. Hellfire missiles or Hydra-70 laser guided rockets could be used to destroy small boats from the air, and helicopter mounted weapons such as a Gatling Gun or .50-cal machine gun could even blanked small boat groups with suppressive fire.
Drone Swarm Threat
Swarms of aerial attack drones could only further compound the risks to U.S. warships in the area given that they too could operate with a proximity advantage, given how “narrow” the Strait of Hormuz is. Unlike U.S. Navy warships in the Red Sea, which operated with stand-off distance from shore, ship-integrated AEGIS radar and a multi-domain ability to intercept or counter attacking drones with aircraft, deck-mounted guns or ship-fired interceptors, U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz operate with a much smaller geographical or range “window” through which to “see” and “counter” incoming swarms. The U.S. Navy had great success countering Houthi-fired cruise missiles, drones and rockets in the Red Sea, yet a close-in small boat or drone swarm attack in the Strait of Hormuz presents a more complex and altogether different threat equation. Countering drone “swarms” in the Strait of Hormuz from surface ships would similarly present a complex threat, as swarms may simply present too many approaching targets for deck-mounted guns, ship-fired interceptors or other kinds of ship defenses such as SeaRAM rockets or the Close-in-Weapons-System. Even though the rapid arrival of “proximity fuses” able to disperse fragments through an “area” to destroy multiple drones at one time could prove effective, ultimately a non-kinetic countermeasure such as EW or High-Powered Microwave might prove more effective against a swarm.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University