Asia's defense needs increase after Red Sea fighting

On the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow 2024 this week, a senior executive at a US defense contractor said air defense operations in the Red Sea and Ukraine had caught the attention of potential customers in Asia.

“We see a growing need for integrated air and missile defense systems here,” said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. These include sensors to detect targets, weapons to shoot them down, and command and control systems to control and link it all together.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Robert Hewson from Swedish Defense Group SAAB also said that customers in Asia are now more interested in not only defending against ballistic missiles but also against other aerial threats such as drones - which are launched in major attacks in the Red Sea.

Asia's need for rooms increased after the war in the Pacific Ocean, picture 1 — The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) defeated a Houthi missile and drone battery in the Red Sea. Photo: US Navy

According to media releases from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), from November 27, 2023 – the world's first recorded use of ASBMs in combat – to February 20 of this year, a total of 48 ASBMs were used, and the US deployed 12 intercepts in the Red Sea. The releases emphasized that many ASBMs fired by the Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen did not cause damage.

CENTCOM said it did not have full figures on the number of ASBMs fired or intercepted. A US defense official said that whenever ASBMs were detected within range of US Navy ships, they were destroyed.

US Navy destroyers are equipped with a variety of air defense systems such as Aegis, with components manufactured by Lockheed Martin, designed to shoot down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. In which, Aegis uses SM-2, SM-3 and SM-6 missiles from RTX subsidiary Raytheon to intercept threats.

At the air show, a spokesman for European defense group MBDA noted that the British government awarded the group a £400 million ($505 million) contract in January to upgrade its Sea Viper air defense system to handle ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, US Navy Admiral Mark Melson, commander of the Western Pacific Logistics Group, said the military was studying lessons from the missile skirmishes that could be applied in Asia and elsewhere.

“Obviously in a very competitive shipping environment where we could potentially encounter a scenario where weapons are used at a high rate, we want to understand what that challenge looks like,” he said, referring to delivering missile defense systems to US warships.

The Houthis say all their missiles are domestically produced. However, experts, the US military and the US Defense Intelligence Agency believe that Iran at least assisted in supplying missiles to the Houthis.

In both cases, Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the ASBMs used in the Red Sea were rudimentary compared to what China could bring to the table.

“The overall sophistication of the Chinese ASBM system, including range, is superior to the missiles we have seen the Houthis use,” he said.

Hoai Phuong (according to SCMP)

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