When the head of US military forces assigned to the Pacific region is being called on the carpet for spending too much on ammo to go after the Houthis, you know things are bad. With US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces downing cheap and poorly made Iranian-made missiles and drones with weapons systems that are significantly more costly to operate could be better reserved should the Pacific come under direct threat from China. Something experts argue is becoming more likely by the day.
Rep Jim Banks (R-IN) questioned the use of over 100 missiles to take down arms from the Houthis, with each one easily costing 100x more. Adm. John Aquilino, the outgoing commander, explained that troops “are fighting with what they got, and we should never ask them to stop or conserve. What we do have to do is move forward on our directed energy path to be able to get on the right side of this cost curve. So, your point is completely valid.”
Getting into directed energy as a weapons system is putting an extreme reliance on future technology at a time when we are battling against some of the most primitive weapons ever. A situation the American troops and taxpayers don’t want to be in.
The part that neither Rep. Banks nor Admiral Aquilino wants to admit is that the Biden administration hamstrung the future of the military. By making it hard to use the technology we have now, we are forcing developers to rush new systems troops are not ready for nor have we tested enough of.
While Aquilino hinted at it by saying we should never ask troops to conserve ammo, when at sea it can be harder to resupply a ship, so there is a level of calculated risk by just lobbing rounds at targets. Especially when they are only using $1,500 drones, and we are sending out $150k missiles in response.
