Could America put air defense auxiliary cruisers into service to support access through critical waterways or access to important ports? They would supplement warships and free some warships for offensive action.
The Navy would like directed-energy weapons for air defense:
Downing Iranian-supplied missiles and drones with multi-million dollar SM-2 missiles to protect shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is a bad exchange that must change, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
“It has been an air-defense fight” in which the Navy and Air Force, along with allies and partners in Operation Prosperity Guardian, have largely prevailed in demonstrating “how we bring defense in depth,” Adm. Christopher Grady said during a U.S. Naval Institute-CSIS Maritime Security Dialogue.
To change the cost-benefit equation, he wants more directed energy systems deployed “where a drop of fuel becomes a weapon” to destroy attacking unmanned systems.
A problem is making sure ships have the energy to power the weapons--or even the armor.
Navy warships in the near term could have weaker directed energy weapons installed. But the ships have power limits on what they can handle. And limits on space to mount them without reducing VLS cells for offensive and defensive missiles, I imagine. Volume is needed that the current generation of surface ships can't provide in intense threat environments.
Could there be a role for modularized air defense auxiliary cruisers in getting that volume of fire? I addressed Navy use in this post (originally submitted as an article many years ago) along with Army missions (calling the ship The AFRICOM Queen for its intended area of operations) in this Military Review article.
The container ship could be modified with plentiful generators to power as many directed-energy weapons as are needed. The directed-energy weapons and generators could be installed in standard shipping containers to make it easier to configure the modularized auxiliary cruiser. Other weapons might be appropriate as well for limited attack capabilities against surface targets and close-in-weapons systems.
In shipping containers, the systems would also be easier to remove from a damaged modularized auxiliary cruiser to rapidly equip another hull.
And the ship itself might be the source of systems put ashore for a long-term mission before the ship retires to reload with systems for other missions at sea.
Mind you, these aren't for protecting a carrier strike group or any other fast-sailing Navy group.
But for protecting a vital piece of sea estate in a sea bastion or escorting merchant ships through danger zones like the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, they might be great.
Or they might be useful to reinforce port defenses until land defenses can be established.
In larger numbers to create a thick air defense bubble, they might even be useful off the east coast of Taiwan to help keep the line of supply open and protect American and allied warships operating there. Apparently our air defense systems don't have a problem with ground clutter (noted in an update).
NOTE: The base image was made from DALL-E.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.