- US destroyers operating in the Red Sea last year defeated Houthi drones without firing a shot.
- The warships used "non-kinetic" capabilities to defeat the threat, per documents reviewed by BI.
- The Navy said the incidents demonstrated a new way for its warships to battle enemy threats.
US Navy destroyers fended off Houthi drones in the Red Sea last year without firing a shot, demonstrating alternative ways for warships to battle these threats.
Documents obtained by Business Insider detail multiple incidents throughout the Navy's counter-Houthi mission in which US destroyers used "non-kinetic" capabilities, engagement methods not dependent on munitions and physical destruction, to defeat the hostile drones launched by the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.
Between November 27, 2023, and March 9, 2024, sailors aboard the USS Mason "successfully executed the engagements" of a drone using undefined "non-kinetic effects" to intercept the uncrewed system. These actions prevented damage to Navy and coalition warships and commercial vessels, one of the documents said.
And on February 19, 2024, sailors aboard USS Gravely used an unspecified "Non-Kinetic Weapon system" in multiple successful non-kinetic engagements against drones in combat, according to another document.
It said that these non-kinetic engagements are "not only proving non-kinetic weapon systems work underway, but changing the way the Surface Navy fights wars at sea."
The document said that these engagements will be used to train the rest of the Navy on how to use non-kinetic weapon systems successfully. The Mason and Gravely spent months deployed to the Middle East last year as part of the US military's counter-Houthi mission.
Navy officials declined to comment on the non-kinetic capabilities of US warships, but destroyers have several ways to defeat enemy drones without firing a shot. A kinetic means of interception would be something like launching a surface-to-air missile at the drone, hitting it with the ship's close-in weapons system, or blasting it out of the sky with rounds from a five-inch deck gun.
Bryan Clark, a former Navy officer and defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, explained to BI that US destroyers are equipped with the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suite, commonly referred to as Slick-32.
The SLQ-32 is a destroyer's electronic ears, capable of detecting the transmissions of a foreign jet or identifying the seeker on an incoming missile. Through its electronic attack systems, the SLQ-32 can also blast electronic noise at frequencies used by a missile guidance system to confuse it.
A warship's electronic warfare systems also include the Ship's Signal Exploitation Equipment (SSEE) system, an information warfare/electronic warfare and tactical cryptologic signals intelligence system. This system has documented electronic warfare non-kinetic capabilities.
The documents BI obtained showed that the sailors from the Mason and Gravely who received combat awards for their roles in defeating the Houthi drones during the non-kinetic engagements worked with the SSEE.
Electronic detection and jamming have long been part of the Navy's doctrine, but US warships had never faced as intense a drone threat as the one brought on by the Houthis. American forces have eliminated nearly 500 drones launched by the rebels since they first started their attacks against ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in October 2023.
"This is really the first time we've seen airborne drones used in anti-ship attacks against US and allied navies," Clark said.
Proving the effectiveness of non-kinetic capabilities is significant for the Navy. Not only are these solutions much cheaper than taking out drones with surface-to-air missiles, but they also spare a ship from depleting its magazine, requiring it to leave the battlespace to rearm. This is critical to sustaining warships during a high-tempo operating environment like the Houthi conflict.
Clark said that these non-kinetic engagements underscore how the Navy has developed a better sense of how to match a warship's defensive systems with threats that it's facing — one of many lessons the sea service is taking away from the Houthi conflict.
