US Navy Drone & Missile Defense Performance in Red Sea Highlights “Layered” Ship Defenses

by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

A US Navy destroyer was again able to track and destroy multiple threats in the Red Sea launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, as part of an effort to respond to distress calls from commercial vessels in the area and respond to identified incoming missile and drone threats. 

US Central Command reported that the USS Carney tracked and destroyed multiple inbound threats fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, a series of operations which appear to have included surveillance, precision targeting and, in few cases, defensive attack countermeasures, CentCom’s essay explains. 

Due to its ability to track multiple threats, the USS Carney protected commercial ships in the area from multiple nations by both tracking incoming enemy attacks and responding to “distress calls” from commercial ships in the area. 

CentCom says there were a total of four attacks on three commercial vessels in the Red Sea, ships connected to as many as 14 different countries. 

While operational specifics are not likely to be available for security reasons, the USS Carney is an Aegis-radar capable destroyer which has previously successfully intercepted missiles launched from Houthi-controlled areas. 

It is not clear just how “far away” the drones and missiles were from the USS Carney when they were detected, yet they may have been seen by long-range ship-based Aegis radar, or perhaps the Houthi missiles were large enough to generate a heat signature upon launch which some satellites can detect. As for which US Navy countermeasure was used, they likely varies depending upon the nature and range of the threat.  Houthi-fired ballistic missiles, for example, were previously intercepted by the USS Carney with an SM-2 interceptor, a ballistic missile defense weapons launched from Vertical Launch Systems. A drone threat, however, could be intercepted and destroyed with a wide range of ship-integrated defensive possibilities

Yemen is 2,211km from Israel, so it means the US Navy destroyer was able to achieve precision target tracking from closer-in-distances and intercept long-range ballistic missiles and drones. Therefore, as CentCom’s essay clearly stated, the actual intent or specific targets the Houthi’s intended to strike with its drones may not be fully known, yet the Houthi-launched drones did present a “threat” to the USS Carney and may have been attacking the US Navy warship.