>>63978576
Yes
twenty years ago, you could arm a frigate with nothing more powerful in the AA line than ESSM and expect it to fend off most foreseeable threats
several navies equipped their frigates with nothing better than that, reserving the AEGIS + SM2 combination only for the "elite", the air warfare destroyers
e.g. the Canadians, the Australians, the Germans, the Danish, the Norwegians
ESSM was "good enough"
today, none of those ships dare pass through the Suez and tell a non-state actor - the Houthis - "come at me if yer hard enough"
they can launch coordinated swarm attacks with high-supersonic antiship and ballistic antiship missiles beyond ESSM's capabilities
this means the bar for what constitutes adequate (not best, "adequate") self-defence for a frigate has been moved up
and missile proliferation will only get worse. it's but a matter of time before they get better missiles. the Houthis might soon acquire a better seeker for their antiship ballistic missiles, or acquire an antiship missile with terminal manoeuvring capability, which means those waters will be no go for any NATO warship without BMD capability
and other NSAs around the world well get their hands on what the Houthis are using now
not to mention minor countries who might suddenly throw a hissyfit and kick off a small regional war
the war began with everyone fielding 1"-class machineguns; people are panic buying 20mm Oerlikon; 40mm VT-fuzed Bofors is the tippy-top. brother, you think this is where the line will stay?
you still think that ESSM is "good enough" for the next 20 years?
