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I did read your post, and I explicitly said I was contradicting your view. I am not unaware of the contents of your post, I just disagree with it. To wit:
The kind of guns which are capable of shooting down Shaheds are not going to be standard issue for commercial shipping vessels. How, exactly, are you going to outfit the commercial shipping fleet with all the guns and rockets required to shoot down these drones while simultaneously engaging in an active fight with the Chinese navy on the other side of the country? And if it is the US intervening, remember that the US navy is going to be tied down in Iran and the Middle East as well. All that these drones need to do to finish their mission in this specific case is make commercial traffic unviable, which your proposed solution doesn't actually prevent.
Moreover, we actually have an example of a weapons system used to shoot down shahed drones in the field - the C-RAM system used to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad. The US Embassy in Baghdad has been abandoned, and the C-RAM system failed to provide adequate protection - I'm not sure due to the difficulty of getting footage, but I believe it was actually destroyed by a drone. You'll have to forgive me for not believing this was a viable answer to shahed drones when I have seen footage of it failing to defend against shahed drones in a conflict happening right now.
Ok, so how many vessels are transiting the strait right now? If the US has an economic and worthwhile answer to these drones, why haven't they used them to open the Strait of Hormuz? We have a perfect, real-life test case for this technology and what we actually see is the US navy giving up, unable to prevent the Iranians from interdicting or destroying commercial traffic. Furthermore, what are the actual economics of these cheap, laser-guided rockets? Do they rely on components or parts that have to be shipped from China? Is there a manufacturing base capable of supplying enough of them to outpace Iran, China and Russia's production of Shahed/Shahed derivatives?
It's not particularly difficult to simply strap a short-range weapons system onto a ship.
This remains to be seen!
You'll have to forgive me for believing that it is a viable answer to Shahed drones when I have seen footage of Shahed drones being shot down by guns in a conflict happening right now.
No defense is 100% effective, and I am not claiming that. I am claiming the general idea that there is no way to counter Shaheds is overblown. The Ukrainians do it on the cheap all the time.
The US transited two destroyers through the strait, so...if the drones were so scary, why did that happen? As I pointed out to you before, the Houthis did not sink any ships with Shahed-type weapons. Based on the Houthis' experience, it seems pretty clear that torpedoes ("suicide drones"), ballistic missiles, and conventional missiles are a greater threat to shipping.
The current production capacity is believed to be around 25,000 annually. This isn't more than, say, Russia's supposed production, but they are unlikely to be shooting any at the US of A for some time, while to my knowledge China hasn't produced any Shaheds. I don't claim to know what Iran's production rate is due to Recent Events.
It's also worth noting that this is just one type of interceptor – the US has a number of anti-drone programs going on right now.
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