What the Navy’s Ship-Launched Missiles Actually Cost
22nd May 2024
Too much.
One of the biggest defense topics as of late is the supply of advanced missiles. Russia’s continuous onslaught of aerial attacks on Ukraine, as well as Kyiv’s ability to defend against them, and the defense of Israel from Iran’s large-scale drone and missile barrage, as well as the threat of China in the Pacific, has brought supply and cost concerns regarding these weapons to the forefront. But the Houthi’s constant barrages on shipping in and around the Red Sea, and the defense put up to counter it, has really highlighted just how fast these weapons can be depleted in the naval domain, even against relatively lowly threats.
With this in mind, we followed up on a story of ours from a few years ago on the actual unit costs of the Navy’s diverse array of ship-launched missiles, from SAMs to anti-ship and land-attack types, with the latest figures and put it into a comprehensive video as part of our new YouTube channel.
While nobody would venture to guess that any of these weapons are cheap, some will be very surprised just how expensive they are. Still, it’s always worth remembering that what the missiles are defending or what targets they are attacking are often far more costly or precious, at least in a big-picture sense, than their own value.