{"id":24408,"date":"2019-09-19T13:01:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T17:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=24408"},"modified":"2019-09-19T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T16:00:11","slug":"drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone attack on Saudi Arabia proves we shouldn\u2019t build big expensive Navy ships?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Back in March, I wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/19\/robot-kamikaze-submarines-shaped-like-blue-whales-render-navy-ships-useless\/\">&#8220;Robot kamikaze submarines shaped like blue whales render navy ships useless?&#8221;<\/a> and asked &#8220;Does it make sense to spend $billions on these Navy ships that could be attacked by robots?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A reader responded &#8220;Forget about submarines, anti-ship missiles probably make every surface ship a sitting duck in a war.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does the recent drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/sep\/15\/drone-attack-on-saudi-hits-global-supply\">Guardian<\/a><\/em>) prove this reader&#8217;s point? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They had the latest and greatest air defense systems says <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/buzz\/did-us-missile-defenses-fail-during-saudi-oil-attack-81171\">&#8220;Did U.S. Missile Defenses Fail During Saudi Oil Attack?&#8221;<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The attack revealed the limits of Saudi Arabia\u2019s seemingly sophisticated air-defense system. Riyadh in recent years has spent billions of dollars building up six battalions of U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missiles and associated radars. The Patriots didn\u2019t stop the recent attack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>A ship doesn&#8217;t have a better air defense system than what the Saudis had, does it? If not, why would we want to spend $10+ billion on a Navy ship when it can be wiped out by a relatively weak adversary, such as the Houthi rebels that are blamed for this attack on the Saudis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Also, why should the U.S. fight with Iran over this? Saudi Arabia is not a member of NATO, right? China is not going to deploy its military on one side or the other of this fight. If it doesn&#8217;t make sense for China to weigh in, why does it make sense for us?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in March, I wrote &#8220;Robot kamikaze submarines shaped like blue whales render navy ships useless?&#8221; and asked &#8220;Does it make sense to spend $billions on these Navy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Drone attack on Saudi Arabia proves we shouldn\u2019t build big expensive Navy ships? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drone attack on Saudi Arabia proves we shouldn\u2019t build big expensive Navy ships? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in March, I wrote &#8220;Robot kamikaze submarines shaped like blue whales render navy ships useless?&#8221; and asked &#8220;Does it make sense to spend $billions on these Navy [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-19T17:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Drone attack on Saudi Arabia proves we shouldn\u2019t build big expensive Navy ships?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-19T17:01:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"articleSection\":[\"War\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/drone-attack-on-saudi-arabia-proves-we-shouldnt-build-big-expensive-navy-ships\/\",\"name\":\"Drone attack on Saudi Arabia proves we shouldn\u2019t build big expensive Navy ships? 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