USS Gravely’s Missile Defense System Fails Against Yemeni Missiles
In a recent development, American officials and experts have acknowledged the failure of the missile defense layers of the destroyer “USS Gravely” in intercepting Yemeni missiles that targeted it last week. This incident has exposed the inaccuracies in military estimates and calculations related to Yemeni capabilities.
According to the American network “CNN”, officials confirmed that the missile defense system of the destroyer “USS Gravely” failed to intercept a Yemeni missile. This forced the destroyer to resort to its “last layer of defense”, a machine gun designed to counter threats very close to the destroyer. The armed forces confirmed that the attack achieved a precise and direct hit.
The commander of the United States Fifth Fleet, Brad Cooper, admitted a day before the attack in statements to “CBS” that American forces only have 9 to 15 seconds to deal with Yemeni missiles and drones. He confirmed that “this is the first time in history that American naval vessels face attacks of this kind.”
Despite these calculations being a significant challenge for American capabilities, “CNN” revealed the error in these calculations. Military analysts stated that according to the American officials’ narrative, “the Yemeni missile was only about 3 seconds or two seconds away from hitting the destroyer after the missile defense layers failed to intercept it.”
The network quoted analyst Carl Schuster, a former captain in the American navy, saying: “This distance means that the debris of the missile will hit the ship even if it is intercepted!”
These details clearly indicate that the American army is indeed facing a completely new equation at sea, and that all its operational and military calculations are based on inaccurate estimates and guesses. While they thought they had 9 to 15 seconds to deal with the missile or drone (which is an operational dilemma in itself), they were surprised to find they only had about two seconds, which means hitting the ship or destroyer. The talk about intercepting a missile or drone at this distance is just an attempt to cover up the failure. Even if the “last layer of defense” could do this, the arrival of more than one missile or drone would completely exceed its capacity. This confirms the accuracy of what the armed forces announced about the Gravely destroyer being hit in last week’s attack.
It should be noted that the missile defense system that failed to intercept the attack on the destroyer “USS Gravely” is very costly. The value of one missile from it exceeds two million dollars, according to what American officials confirmed earlier. This means that the United States, in addition to facing the direct targeting and immediate material damage, is facing a significant drain.
In this context, “CNN” quoted Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, saying: “The challenge facing air defense is a problem of capabilities; because American warships have limited supplies of interceptor missiles to use.”
He added: “We cannot sit here and play the hunting game indefinitely,” indicating that the continuation of Yemeni operations represents a significant drain on the “limited” supplies that American warships possess.
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