I was listening to Drachinifel the other day and he speculated that with the rise of drones, we would see a return to gun systems - roughly 40mm to 76 mm - added to warships. Any thoughts?
What Flash said. All of it together.
Lasers would be ideal but the technology has still really struggled to mature despite the money thrown at it. There’s power storage and generation issues, waste hear, and then just getting laser “efficiency” up which there is more to than just making it emit more powerful beams.
They are kind of ideal for things like this though, because current OWA drones are so slow. But also true they’re vulnerable to adding countermeasures like mirrored surfaces or even survivability maneuvers.
Some type of SAMs will remain preferred because everybody wants to fight them as far out as possible. That’ll be something in the Roadrunner/Coyote flavor, but while cheaper than the big missiles, it’s still pretty expensive compared to the OWA drones.
Guns, I’m not as sure about the lower end. Higher end, 76mm, yes and going up also, possibly more “smart” rounds. The Navy canceled a HVP round program for its 5” guns a few years before all this kicked off….which we probably were regretting somewhat. It’s been brought back on line last year.
I actually also think even a drone “interceptor” with something like a 20mm or even 50cal might be worth looking at…maybe a drone v drone DCA?
www.jpost.com
taskandpurpose.com
breakingdefense.com