US Navy Red Sea Commander Says “Magazine Depth” Needed to Stop Drone Swarm Attacks

By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Countless civilians and  maritime warriors were saved from certain death in recent months by US Navy warships on patrol in the Red Sea, and warfare commanders are now looking closely to implement many critical combat lessons learned from months of successfully tracking and destroying incoming Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles and drones.  US Navy radar and tracking systems, ISR and layered ship defenses such as interceptors, deck-mounted guns and surface to air targeting all functioned with great precision during months of maritime combat during which training sailors withstood the pressure of being under constant attack. There were many instances of cruise and anti-ship missile shoot downs as well as unprecedented surface to air strikes, multi-domain connectivity and air-to-air engagement. 

The US Navy continues to study and reflect upon its combat in the Red Sea with a mind to adapting tactics, strategies and Concepts of Operation to address evolving threats.  Drones and drone swarm defenses are now center stage as the Navy examines ways to further refine and improve its counter drone targeting techniques, according to the US Navy’s Commanding Officer of Carrier Strike Group -2 which spent months in the Red Sea. 

“Obviously drones have been around for a while and we’ve been training to deal with drones. But I think what we have started to recognize, what the Red Sea really taught us was it’s not going to be just one or two drones, it’s going to be a lot more. So you got to be able to train to deal with a lot of those (drones),”  Rear Adm. Javon “Hak” Hakimsadeh told Warrior in an interview about his Carrier Strike Group’s Red Sea deployment, 

Hak’s comments are likely informing cutting edge thinking now taking place at the Pentagon and across the services when it comes to drone defenses and countering drone swarms in particular. 

“Probably the biggest consideration from a war fighting perspective is, you know, the size of your magazine or magazine capacity. You know, you’ve got to be able to have enough bullets to be able to shoot those down,” Hak told Warrior. 

Along with ensuring a sufficient magazine to counter “large numbers” of attacking drones, Hak also emphasized that the Red Sea experience is driving discussion about new tactics and methods of expanding drone defenses. 

“How do we expand the options that a sailor has to be able to take care of a drone? And I think in the near term, it’s probably going to be something along the lines of a gun system or a kinetic way to do it with guns and ordnance, but the long -term, I’d love to see things like directed energy, you know, something that can just recharge and give you that almost infinite magazine size, right? You don’t have to worry about your magazine size, because if you can keep generating the power to be able to launch your directed energy, if you will. “ Hakimsadeh said.