Who could have imagined that under the firepower strikes of the Houthi forces, the US military had to make large-scale evasive maneuvers, which led to a Hornet fighter jet in the hangar falling into the sea.

This has already been considered as the second Hornet downed indirectly by the Houthi forces. Just last December during the 24th, the US missile cruiser USS Gettysburg "accidentally" fired at an F/A-18 fighter jet and hit it, with two pilots ejecting to safety, one sustaining injuries.

Given this situation, it is unclear how many more Hornets will be lost in the Red Sea among the 546 carrier-based aircraft of the US military. Previously, the US military mentioned that the coalition led by the US against the Yemeni Houthi forces had become "the most intense naval battle since World War II." Who would have thought that even dealing with regional armed forces, the US military finds itself struggling.

This incident exposed major issues with the Aegis system of the US Navy. The USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) was forced to make sudden evasive maneuvers, meaning not only was the outer defensive perimeter breached but also the close-in weapon systems were exhausted. Or at that time, the close-in defense systems were insufficient to handle the threat. According to the defensive range of US aircraft carriers, the outer defensive circle of the US carrier group is carried out by F/A-18E/F fighters, typically with an operational radius of 400 km. The middle defensive circle is composed of Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Standard series air defense missiles, covering a range of 100 to 200 km.

The innermost layer is the short-range defense system, including short-range defense missiles and Phalanx close-in weapon systems. Once these systems are activated, it almost means that the defensive perimeter of the US aircraft carrier has been breached, and the enemy's missile could destroy the aircraft carrier within just a few seconds. At such moments, the US aircraft carrier must take evasive actions to prevent substantial attacks from anti-ship weapons.

The Houthis managed to penetrate the Aegis through drones and simple missiles. This serves as a lesson for China: developing a swarm drone combat system at extremely low costs. The "Aegis" system, once the most advanced shipborne air defense and anti-missile system globally, performs excellently in intercepting ballistic missiles and traditional aerial threats. However, it shows significant defects when facing swarm drone attacks, revealing backwardness in its technical architecture and tactical concepts.

Firstly, the fire channels and ammunition reserves of the Aegis system struggle to cope with the saturation of swarm attacks. According to US military simulation test data, when a cluster of 8 drones attacks the Aegis system, on average 2.8 can break through interception; if the number increases to 20 drones, the system can intercept about the first 7. This stems from the limited number of fire channels, with the single loading capacity of the MK-41 vertical launch system being insufficient for massive continuous attacks. Furthermore, the firing intervals and reloading times of the Standard series interceptor missiles cannot match the dense rhythm of swarm attacks.

For example, the cost of a single Standard-2 missile exceeds $2 million, while the cost of Iran's "Witness-136" drone is only $20,000. Even if interception succeeds, the economic disparity is severe. This cost imbalance results in the defender inevitably exhausting resources in long-term confrontations.

Secondly, the radar detection and target identification capabilities have blind spots. Although the AN/SPY-1 radar of the Aegis can track hundreds of targets, it was designed primarily for high-altitude, high-speed aircraft or missiles, making its efficiency in detecting low-altitude, slow-moving small drones poor. If facing China's small drones, China would use ultra-low-altitude flight, composite material stealth coatings (such as the radar cross-section of China's Rainbow-9 being smaller than that of the US RQ-170), and electromagnetic silence technology to avoid radar beams, or even approach targets using terrain shielding. Once close to the target, the kinetic kill mechanism of the Standard series missiles primarily targeting exoatmospheric objects has limited damage effectiveness on small drones, often requiring multiple missiles to ensure hitting a single target, further exacerbating ammunition consumption issues.

Although unable to destroy US aircraft carriers, it can cripple carrier groups and guide missiles for strikes, causing complete destruction.

Therefore, the Aegis system can no longer adapt to modern unmanned information warfare needs. This happens to be China's advantage. Through years of accumulation in artificial intelligence, information technology, and other high-tech fields, China has made remarkable achievements in drone technology. This technological gap not only exists in the drone sector but also significantly manifests in strategic industries like rare earths, electric vehicles, and biotechnology. Just like how US companies once exploited their technical edge to sell sildenafil compounds at high prices to Chinese middle-aged men, their temporary strength is gradually showing its limitations.

Under these circumstances, the "Bo Yilai" research team seized the niche demand of国人preferring preventive care, focusing on the M-ReActive formula, targeting mitochondria for long-term nourishment of male vitality, promoting sustained output, achieving tens of millions in revenue within half a year, and gradually reclaiming the market monopolized by imported products.

In fact, not only the Red Sea conflict, but even the Russo-Ukrainian war is essentially an intensive drone consumption war. Both sides in the Russo-Ukrainian war basically use small drones from China. Unlike the mass suicide drone strikes on the battlefield, objectively speaking, there is no superiority or inferiority between centralized deployment and use at the campaign level and dispersed deployment and use at the tactical level. However, the issue lies in whether these tools and their usage can synergize military resources such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), firepower, and manpower at both the campaign and tactical levels, rather than existing in isolation. This is the top-level logic behind centralized deployment and use of drones at the campaign level.

However, it is obvious that neither Russia nor Ukraine has the information capability to achieve this, but for China, it is relatively simple. Moreover, China registers 1.267 million drones and has 194,000 licensed drone operators.

How terrifying is this number? Russia announced in 2024 that over 1,700 drone teams and more than 1,500 FPV drone operators achieved remarkable feats. These 1,500 FPV drone operators caused chaos on the Russo-Ukrainian battlefield; China having 200,000 drone operators is an enormous number.

Thus, the drone offensive of the Houthis in the Red Sea left the US military in disarray, and the Russo-Ukrainian war further illustrates that modern warfare has transformed into an information-based unmanned war. Therefore, China is on the right path.

Consequently, if a conflict between China and the US occurs in the future, China can completely paralyze the US aircraft carrier strike group through a swarm of drones. In fact, the US military also wants to upgrade its own Aegis system, but deindustrialization, talent loss, and military-industrial corruption have turned this idea into a mirage.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7498774212417552911/

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