Reference News, July 21 report: Hong Kong Asia Times website published an article on July 19 with the title "The U.S. Hopes Cheap Missiles Can Narrow the War Gap with China," by Gabriela Hualda, as translated below:

The United States is betting on a new round of cheap cruise missiles. According to Reuters, this month, U.S. defense contractor L3 Harris Technologies released the "Red Wolf" and "Green Wolf" missiles. In the context of rising tensions in the Pacific region, these missiles are intended to provide the U.S. military with affordable long-range strike capabilities.

The system supports the U.S. Department of Defense's "affordable mass" strategy, which has been influenced by recent conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, highlighting the necessity of large-scale deployable missile stockpiles. Both multi-purpose missiles have a range exceeding 200 nautical miles (approximately 370 kilometers) and can strike moving maritime targets.

The "Red Wolf" missile excels at precision strikes, while the "Green Wolf" missile is used for electronic warfare and intelligence gathering. These missiles are being produced in Ashburn, Virginia, with initial small-batch production gradually transitioning to full-scale production.

L3 Harris Technologies expects the price of each missile set to be approximately $300,000, with a target of producing about 1,000 sets per year. These missiles have completed more than 40 successful test flights, marking a strategic shift in a remote missile market currently dominated by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

More and more weapons are now being marketed under the concept of "affordable mass," including Anduril's "Barracuda" drone and Lockheed Martin's Common Multi-Purpose Trailer (CMMT). These weapons reflect the vision of low-cost, mass-producible cruise missiles aimed at overwhelming opponents of comparable strength.

As the U.S. military shifts toward low-cost weapons such as the "Barracuda," CMMT, "Red Wolf," and "Green Wolf" to achieve affordable mass deployment, a critical question looms: Can these inexpensive weapons have sufficient firepower, scale, and survivability to compensate for industrial shortcomings and support sustained operations in high-intensity wars?

Defense expert Seth Jones, in a report he wrote for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in January 2023, pointed out that the U.S. defense industrial base is still only adapted for peacetime and lacks resilient supply chains. Jones warned that this situation leaves the U.S. unprepared for prolonged conflicts, where high-end munitions could run out early, leading to catastrophic consequences.

Although increasing the production of low-end precision-guided munitions can alleviate shortages to some extent, an article published by Evan Montgomery and others on the "War Dilemma" website in June 2024 pointed out that low-cost, mass-produced precision-guided munitions often lack the performance—such as stealth, speed, range, and penetration—needed to produce lasting strategic effects.

Based on recent case studies, they pointed out that Iran's swarm of "Witness" loitering munitions, each costing between $20,000 and $50,000, were successfully intercepted by Israel in April 2024, in stark contrast to Ukraine's selective use of expensive advanced munitions like the "Storm Shadow" cruise missile and the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System.

Montgomery and others concluded that low-cost drone swarms may struggle to cause meaningful attrition, especially when autonomous and swarm technologies remain immature or economically unscalable.

Stacy Pettyjohn and others, in an article written for the New America Security Center in January 2025, noted that due to the capability gap between high-end precision-guided munitions and systems like the "Red Wolf," the U.S. must deploy a high-low combination of precision-guided munitions as soon as possible.

However, Pettyjohn and others warned that the U.S. Department of Defense's risk-averse procurement culture and the lack of clear operational concepts for integrating the two levels exacerbate these challenges. (Translated by Wang Diqing)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7529390465498530367/

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