US warships are taking down weapons no one has ever faced in combat before, and a Navy commander calls it a 'great opportunity'

• The U.S. Navy only recently combatted anti-ship ballistic missiles used in combat for the first time.

• Business Insider recently visited a destroyer that shot down some Houthi missiles.

• Navy commanders say U.S. forces gain valuable intelligence through these engagements.

U.S. Navy warships off the coast of Yemen are battling Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles, a dangerous weapon that no military has ever faced in combat until recently.

These weapons could pose significant threats in future conflicts, particularly with China in the Western Pacific. But Navy commanders said U.S. forces are learning lessons from their recent battles in the Middle East and gaining valuable intelligence from those engagements.

““This is the first time a ballistic missile has been fired, either at a warship or at maritime traffic near a warship,” a carrier strike group commander told Business Insider during a visit to the Red Sea this week “And it gave us a lot of information.”

The Houthis began using anti-ship ballistic missiles – alongside anti-ship cruise missiles and unidirectional attack drones – towards the end of last year, marking the first time “in history” that these weapons have been used , like American President Joe,” Biden said. The use of these missiles complicates the threat environment.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have fired dozens of anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen into international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, sometimes even hitting commercial ships.

These repeated provocations attracted the Navy and prompted it to respond. Over the past two months, US warships operating in the region have shot down a handful of anti-ship ballistic missiles – most recently in early February. The United States also carried out pre-emptive strikes targeting tthese missiles in Yemen before their launch.

BI recently visited the Red Sea aboard the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, which has been on the front lines of these efforts and shot down several Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles.

The ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Brian Sanchez praised his Sailors as “resilient” and said they had months of training under their belt to prepare for these engagements.

“Now that we’re here, this is what we trained for,” he said in an interview with BI. “We may be seeing it for the first time, but it's not new, because we've had these practice rehearsals.“

Sanchez said his warship sends the collected data back to the United States, where the performance of weapons systems is analyzed for any technical and tactical improvements or adjustments. He credits his Sailors for being able to meet these commitments in the way they were trained.

“They did a really good job of reacting as we expected and then immediately getting back to business and making sure the ship continued to stay ready for another engagement,” Sanchez said of his sailors.

The Gravely is part of the Navy's Carrier Strike Group 2, which includes the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, four destroyers and a cruiser. Carrier Strike Group Commander Rear Admiral Marc Miguez said he has already received feedback on some of the data that has been sent back to the United States, including that the ships' weapon systems are operating “exactly as intended “.

“We have new capabilities that have been deployed over the last couple of years, and that has paid huge dividends when it comes to defeating this ballistic missile threat,” he told BI during a 'a visit to the USS Eisenhower this week..

The Houthi rebels have a fairly large arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, some of which are Iranian, while others contain only elements from Tehran, according to an analysis by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank published in early January. U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, has drawn attention to the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, but has not specifically identified which missiles were used in the attacks.

Long before the Houthis began attacking international shipping lanes with anti-ship ballistic missiles, these weapons had become a growing concern for the U.S. military as it looked across the Pacific to China, given the country's growing arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles and rising tensions. .

If Washington and Beijing were to go to war at some point in the future, the maritime domain would likely be a key battlefield, making anti-ship ballistic missile capabilities and defenses designed to defeat them important considerations.

Experts said the Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles don't really stand out from China's arsenal, which is much more sophisticated, particularly in terms of guidance technology, and increasingly extensive. Beijing has invested heavily in developing its Rocket Force and has even built models of US warships, which would be used for gunnery training. China also has a wide array of sensors – including radars and satellites – that it can use to direct its missiles.

But while there may be a difference between threat environments and capabilities in the Middle East and the Western Pacific, any anti-ship ballistic missile could cause catastrophic damage, and current and former military officers agree on the means that the Navy gains extremely valuable experience and a degree of reassurance through its regular engagements with the Houthis.

“It’s not that we like getting shot,” Miguez said. “But it was a great opportunity to prove that the systems that we have purchased, fielded and trained on, actually work when asked to do so.”

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