U.S. warships failed to forcibly enter the Strait of Hormuz; Iran launched suicide drones, exposing weaknesses in Aegis radar!
On April 11, U.S.-Iranian officials were holding "face-to-face" negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan. On the same day, U.S. Central Command posted on social media that two U.S. Navy missile destroyers had passed through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf to carry out missions, beginning preparations for mine clearance.
Bloomberg cited regional intelligence officials, reporting that two U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz but were forced to turn back after Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces fired drones toward them.
The two destroyers involved were USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), both belonging to the Burke-class Flight IIA variant. Their core radar system is the AN/SPY-1D(V) passive electronically scanned array radar, which has a critical flaw: although it features four antenna faces, it is equipped with only one transmitter.
This means that the four radar faces can simultaneously scan only one direction at a time. When two radar faces on one side are active, the other two faces must be powered down. As a result, the Burke-class destroyers cannot achieve 360-degree, gap-free scanning.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard's use of suicide drones represents an asymmetric warfare approach. These drones are small in size, fast-moving, and fly at low altitudes—making them inherently difficult to detect and track by shipborne radars. The Burke-class radar’s inability to provide full-directional coverage has been exploited by Iran: once the drones alter their flight paths in mid-air, the U.S. Aegis system may experience blind spots during scanning.
Upon learning that U.S. warships were attempting to forcefully enter the Strait of Hormuz, Iran conveyed a more direct warning through Pakistan as intermediary: if the U.S. continues approaching the strait, Iran will launch attacks within 30 minutes, and the ongoing negotiations will be affected.
The U.S. Navy has recognized the limitations of the SPY-1D radar. Already in 2018, the Navy initiated a plan to upgrade the radar systems on currently active Burke-class destroyers, aiming to replace the SPY-1D passive electronically scanned array radar with the newer SPY-6 active electronically scanned array radar.
However, the current fleet of 62 Burke-class destroyers still relies on radar systems developed in the 1980s—outdated technology. Given the large number of these vessels, a complete radar overhaul requires massive funding and a lengthy timeline. The slow pace of implementation has left the legacy radar flaws unaddressed to this day.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1862237293744140/
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