Advanced multi-layered sensors and rapid-fire interceptors provide a lethal shield, neutralizing Iranian and Houthi projectiles long before they can penetrate the Navy’s sophisticated, tiered defensive perimeters.
by Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
U.S. Central Command has simply said “no,” a U.S. Navy warship was “not” hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, despite claims from Iran’s IRGC-aligned Fars News Agency that a U.S. Frigate was hit. A statement from U.S. Central Command acknowledged that the U.S. was operating in the region but said unequivocally that “no” U.S. ships were hit.
This CentCom statement aligns with the U.S. Navy’s experience thus far, as no U.S. Navy warships have actually been “hit” in the Red Sea or Strait of Hormuz in recent years, despite hundreds of attempted Iranian and Houthi missile and drone attacks. As for “why” there has been no actual “hit” of a U.S. Navy warship, there are numerous reasons or variables which explain this pertaining to weapons, tactics, doctrine, sensing and multi-domain “sensing.”
The U.S. Navy’s multi-layered warship defenses are extremely significant, as they operate with a ‘tiered” or “range-based” ability to destroy incoming threats from great distances all the way into close-in threats. In the unlikely event that a threat manages to pass through several longer-range layers of ship-defenses, U.S. Navy warships are armed with deck-mounted guns, close-in interceptor missiles and “area” weapons such as the Close-in-Weapons System (CWIS). The CWIS is a phalanx gun capable of firing 4,500 rounds of tungsten “steel” projectiles a minute to blanket an area with defensive fire. Approaching drones or small boats which manage to get within close range of Navy warships will be quickly “hit” with these weapons. However, in most cases in the Middle East in recent years, it seems threats have not often penetrated outer layers of ship defenses such that they needed to be engaged with the closest-in systems.
Multi-Domain Sensing
There are many reasons for this, pertaining to U.S. Navy multi-domain sensing and command and control. One of the critical lessons learned in the Red Sea, for example, is that multi-domain command and control technologies are increasingly able to “share” threat related data between ground command and control centers, surface ships and airborne assets such as drones, fighter jets and surveillance planes. This means approaching threats and their trajectories can be “seen” and countered from many angles at greater stand-off distances than ever before. Specifically, the Commanding Officer of Carrier Strike Group 2 in the Red Sea in 2024 said carrier-launched fighter jets proved valuable as air sensors able to help surface warships “see” and “track” incoming missile and drone attacks.
Additional targeting support can come from ship-integrated Aegis Combat Systems, software enabled air defenses connecting advanced, high-fidelity radar with ship-based fire control able to launch interceptor missiles to destroy incoming missiles and drones. The most advanced Aegis System, called Baseline 10, combines ballistic missile defense and air-and-cruise missile defense into a single, integrated system so anti-ship cruise missiles, ballistics missiles and enemy aircraft or drones can be “seen.” Using electromagnetic “pings,” the ship-based Aegis radar bounces signals off of threat objects and analyzes the “return” signals to develop a picture or “rendering” of a threat object. Therefore, Aegis radar is able to discern the distance, speed, shape and trajectory of an approaching missile, then “cue” a countermeasure, interceptor or defensive method to destroy the threat.
Ship-based defenses are “tiered” and “layered” in an integrated way to ensure a threat is sufficiently destroyed. The longest-range interceptor is likely the SM-3 Block IIA, a large, modern interceptor upgraded with software to track and destroy long-range ballistic missiles and even ICBMs in the terminal phase of flight as they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. Mid-range interceptors include the SM-6 and SM-2 interceptors, yet these Vertical Launch System-fired interceptors are heavily fortified by additional layers of ship defenses for even closer-range intercept. The SM-6 and SM-2 are “long-range” interceptors, meaning they can “hit” threats from 100-to-150 miles away.
Close-in-Defenses
Closer-in defenses include the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block II, a cruise missile interceptor capable of flying in “sea-skimming” mode at lower altitudes parallel to the surface to destroy incoming cruise missiles. The ESSM Block II is listed with a range of roughly 27 miles. Also in this general mid-to-close range defensive sphere, the Navy’s Rolling Airframe Missile can fire targeted interceptors and explosives at ranges out to five miles. The Navy’s Coyote Block 2 drone interceptor also operates at ranges of roughly 6 miles, yet this weapon is a drone vs. drone destroyer, meaning it is a small drone that can fire from the ship’s deck and use a proximity fuse to “explode” fragmentation across an “area” to counter a drone swarm.
Alongside these “kinetic” or explosive defensive options, there are many non-kinetic countermeasures available as well such as electronic warfare systems able to “jam” incoming missiles. Laser weapons are also increasingly arming U.S. Navy warships, weapons which not only travel at the speed of light but are scalable, meaning they can disable, burn through or fully incinerate incoming drone and missile threats.
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 1945. Osborn is also 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--