If it’s Friday, it’s time for the Rundown! This week, we took a close look at how the Navy fought an undeclared war in the Red Sea from October 2023 to January 2025, during which the service fired more than $1 billion worth of interceptors at missiles, drones, and other threats launched by Houthi rebels and Iran.
After firing a shipload of extremely costly missiles, some with a price tag as high as $28.7 million per munition, the Navy switched to less expensive options, such as 5-inch main gun rounds, to shoot down drones flying low or close to ships. That’s right, it was literally too close for missiles, so they switched to guns.
Although the conflict has been on hiatus since Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement in January, there’s always the chance that the Houthis could start attacking ships in the Red Sea again.
