USS Laboon was the first to fire a missile that intercepted a ballistic missile in sea combat. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
While US Navy (USN) forces used about the number of Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors recently acquired in a year to defend against Iranian and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea region, overall SM-3 inventories should prove sufficient to cover US needs, according to a recent assessment released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“Following Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1, defense analysts have expressed concerns about the US use of about a dozen Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors,” wrote Wes Rumbaugh, a fellow with the CSIS Missile Defense Project, in a commentary released on 4 December.
“The debates surrounding aid to Ukraine have turned concerns about munitions production into an almost reflexive reaction to any use or transfer of US weapons,” Rumbaugh said. “While there are reasonable concerns about the capacity of certain air and missile defense interceptors, for example, expenditure rates of the SM-2 missile in the Red Sea, the case of SM-3 production is one where the concern is somewhat overblown.”
SM-3 Block IBs run about USD12.5 million per missile and Block IIAs cost about USD28.7 million each, according to budget documents, USN officials familiar with missile operations, and defence analysts.
From the end of 2023 through the first quarter and part of the second quarter of 2024, the USN had spent about USD1 billion on missiles used in Red Sea regional operations, USN Secretary Carlos Del Toro said publicly several times to the media, in speeches, or to Congress.
For more information about US defence against missiles and other threats in the Red Sea region, please see
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