Did Someone Just Send The US A Warning?

Potentially very big story out this morning: A US Arleigh Burke class destroyer shot down a Houthi cruise missile, using one of its Phalanx CIWS guns. What’s the big story here? Arleigh Burke class destroyers—the one in question was the USS Gravely—are:

The Arleigh Burke class of guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) is a United States Navy class of destroyer centered around the Aegis Combat System

Phalanx CIWS?

The Phalanx CIWS (SEE-wiz) is an automated gun-based close-in weapon system to defend military watercraft automatically against incoming threats such as aircraft, missiles, and small boats.

What this means is that the Houthi cruise missile got past our most sophisticated defenses and had to be taken down by the destroyer’s last ditch defense system. Count on this—nobody wants to have to take down a cruise missile with a “close-in weapon system.”

Big Serge gets it, and so do plenty of other people who know something about these matters:

Big Serge ☦️🇺🇸🇷🇺 @witte_sergei

A single Houthi missile got through the AEGIS umbrella? Not a good sign.

Quote

Global: Military-Info @Global_Mil_Info

Wow, the USS Gravely had to use its Phalanx CIWS against a Houthi cruise missile per a U.S. official to CNN.

This is essentially the ships last layer of defense against any incoming attacks.

(The video below shows one in action!)

0:14 / 0:30

6:52 PM · Jan 31, 2024

What’s especially important here is this—not the use of the singular words: “a cruise missile”, “a single missile”. One. A smart commenter asks the right question, which leads to this exchange:

T-90M @T_90_M

What I don't get is why aren't the Houthis shooting salvos? Single missiles have very little chances of success.

Big Serge @witte_sergei

They don’t actually want to sink an American ship. Escalation management.

Jes_J_Bel @Jes_J_Bel

Just a matter of time before we lose a ship. The Houthis *still* aren't using the full-on swarm attack of missiles and drones to really try and sink something. Thus far, they keep it a manageable 1~3 missiles and/or 1~ 3 drones. This is more like pot shots.

MSN carried a story that sets all this out very clearly:

A Houthi missile got so close to a US destroyer the warship turned to a last-resort gun system to shoot it down
insider---- MSN ^ | JAN 31 | @insider.com (Ella Sherman,Jake Epstein)

A Houthi missile recently put a US destroyer's close-in weapons system to the test, a report said. A warship's CIWS is usually considered its last line of defense and is for close-range intercepts. The Tuesday incident marks the latest Houthi missile attack, though not the latest exchange of fire. A Houthi anti-ship cruise missile fired into the Red Sea came within a mile of a US Navy destroyer on Tuesday, a report said, close enough that the American warship turned to its close-in weapons system — a last line of defense.

Most missiles are shot down farther out. This was the closest that a Houthi attack had come to an American warship, four US officials told CNN, which reported additional details of the incident on Wednesday. US Central Command initially said on Tuesday that around 11:30 p.m. local time, the Houthis fired a single anti-ship cruise missile from Yemen toward the Red Sea, and it was shot down by USS Gravely.

…

US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are equipped with at least one CIWS, which features a close-range, radar-guided automatic 20 mm cannon that can fire up to 4,500 rounds a minute and has an effective range out to about two nautical miles.

Before a ship's CIWS is engaged, capabilities such as the warship's SM-2 or SM-3 interceptors come into play. These are fired from vertical-launch-system cells before they then intercept and destroy airborne threats. …

I see two possibilities here. First, the missiles used so far to attack naval vessels have not been the best available—this was a step up. Two, the attacks themselves were structured as warnings rather than serious attempts to sink ships. This time was a bit different. It was a message: Keep screwing around with us and we will sink your ships. We just showed you how close a single cruise missile—probably not the best strike missile available—can get to your best missile defense ships. We can escalate to various combinations of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, fired together in “swarms”, and almost certainly using more sophisticated weapons systems. Do you really want to risk one of your carriers against that kind of attack? Cross our redlines and you’ll find out.

Next question: Who’s sending this message? The Houthis? Or Iran, who supplies the more sophisticated missiles in the Houthi inventory? Obviously, this looks like an Iranian warning, and of course this is a reminder that Iran can 1) shut down the Straits of Hormuz—very easily—and 2) they can also reach out into the Arabian Sea. It’s a warning that all those people talking about “retaliation” against Iranian assets over the attack on Tower 22 better get in touch with reality. What goes around comes around. Did you really think you could assassinate Soleimani, a high Iranian official, and we wouldn’t respond? That we would be reconciled to your bullying in the region, to your support for Israeli hegemonic ambitions?

Think it over. You haven’t seen anything yet.