US Navy Launched Something That Shouldn’t Exist… Iran Can’t Stop It – story-veterans.com

In practice, this means a destroyer dozens of miles away could generate a firing solution using data it did not directly collect. The carrier group functions less as separate ships and more as a distributed, synchronized combat system.

Initial engagements would likely rely on layered conventional defenses. Naval guns firing proximity-fused rounds can effectively neutralize slow-moving aerial targets at moderate range. Close-in weapon systems (CIWS), such as the Phalanx, are designed to shred incoming threats within a few kilometers of the ship. Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) and Standard Missiles (SM-2 or SM-6) extend that protective bubble outward.

Critics of traditional missile defense often point to cost asymmetry: interceptors costing millions of dollars versus drones ᴀssembled for tens of thousands. That arithmetic has shaped much of Iran’s drone doctrine. Saturation aims to exhaust magazines.