US Navy wins against familiar and unprecedented Red Sea threats are being driven by defense decisions it made decades ago [Video]

Decisions made decades ago are now defining the Red Sea naval battle unfolding between American forces and the Houthis, the US Navy’s top civilian official said on Wednesday, highlighting the long reach of defense decision-making.

For months, Navy warships have engaged Houthi missiles and drones as part of their mission to protect key international shipping lanes from attacks carried out by the Iran-backed rebels. Over the course of these engagements, US forces have at times faced threats unprecedented in combat, like anti-ship ballistic missiles, off the coast of Yemen.

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro acknowledged the effectiveness of the platforms and weapon systems that American sailors have used to destroy Houthi threats and traced their origins back decades, in some cases as far back as 70 years ago.

“The operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the past three months illustrate perfectly how technological investments and force design decisions made by naval leaders in the past impact operations …