huge volume of shipping diverted from bab al mandab strait - you didn't mention this
No meaningful impact on global economy. So not as “huge” impact wise as you like to allude to. Maybe for Israeli trade, not global trade.
USAF sorties have been very limited so far
Saudis weree doing hundreds of sorties a day and couldn’t put a dent into Houthi capabilities. So it doesn’t matter what USAF does they don’t possess the capability to permanently degrade Houthi missile capability via airstrike alone.
Houthi’s are not Hamas. You have a massive mountainous territory with an adversary who has been in on and off war for most of its life. Houthi’s are some of the best “off the street” warrior force on the planet.
if each US destroyer has even 100km range AD it should easily be able to cover the entire area
You mean like the billion dollar US destroyers that collided with massive commercial ships in peace time? Not once, but multiple times?
Or did You mean like the numerous Patriot systems that should have “easily” detected the Iranian attack on Armaco?
Or the numerous Ukrainian radars and Russian radars that should have “easily” captured the respective incoming attacks on each other’s soil?
Lay down the video games and realize war isn’t based on brochures handed out at military expos.
A majority of Houthi munitions have indeed been shot down this is facts not conjecture, but no radar on the planet can “easily cover” an entire area as you say. Radar isn’t magic, it’s radiation and waves as you well know.
Not to mention they cannot violate the laws of physics either. The earth is curved so ship based radars have limitations to their azimuth and angle of the radars projection just like ground based radars.
Low flying drones and CMs can effectively fly “under the radar” if Iran floating bases are able to pass real time Intel to Houthi’s on the ground about where a commercial ship is in relation to a guarding Western warship. The further away it is the less likely it will stop a drone or CM. Hence why ”some” attacks will get thru.
That is also why a US Navy ship had to use its CWIS to shoot down some cruise missiles recently because it “got past” its long range radar. But by and large no US navy ship has been seriously targeted. I doubt Iranian IRGC want to open that can of worms especially after what happen with the US soldiers that died in Jordan.
