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Posted by Francine on December 22, 2025, 7:26:20, in reply to "Re: If Ukraine has taught us anything at all, it's that drones are a huge, huge threat."
You state that we can "bolt" on this or that weapon and that would solve the problems. However, this ignores the problem that from the drawing, the deck they propose to bolt weapons to is either O1 or 02 level. You can't bolt that much weight on the upper structure of a small vessel before stability becomes an issue.
Prewar destroyers and even wartime cruisers had stability problems as antiaircraft guns and electronics were added.
Finally, the reason they didn't bring back the Perrys in the late 2010s was limited growth potential. This ship is the same size, maybe a little smaller. We're back to modifying an existing design. 
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USMC counter drone system:
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2024/12/17/this-marine-unit-now-has-its-own-tool-to-blast-drones-out-of-the-sky/
I see nothing here that could not also be ship mounted. Indeed, the Corps used their vehicle mounted system from an amphibious ship. A short step to placing it directly on the ship...
USMC efforts to ramp up their own drone units
https://defensescoop.com/2025/12/11/marine-corps-drone-operator-mos-retention-program/
There's your "3 Marines with an Xbox controller and drones." There are articles which show operators in the new MLRs.
This could just as easily be "3 sailors with an Xbox controller and drones" for shipboard use, should the Navy stand it up. Of course, the Marines are a sea service. If desired, a USMC detatchment can be placed shipboard. Former capital ships had USMC gunnery units aboard. Might one day be common to have a standing Marine drone unit on designated vessel types. Previous Message
So, all we need to stop China is 3 smart guys with an Xbox controller and a cheap drone?
They have spent the last decade at least carefully copying us, and fielding a carrier-centric battle force with large amphibious ships, plus a large number of small surface combatants to better control the "local sea space." Seems they should then be as vulnerable to this threat as we are, seeing as how the two forces are so similar. So, what's China up to in this regard? Or, are they also running behind the eternal see-saw between attack and defense?
The USMC is currently working to field its new Marine Littoral Regiments (MLRs.) Their goal is to sieze islands (unsinkable ships) and threaten passing shipping with all manner of antiship missiles. I am sure drones are probably in their thinking as well. You probably will indeed see "three Marines with an Xbox and drones" bothering the PLAN.
Our own counter to aerial and surface drones is currently the Mk 38 gun system. It has been retrofitted to the Burkes. It can just as easily be fitted to almost any other platform. As also mentioned, we have our eyes on lasers for the future. One article on the new frigates points out a place on drawings of them that looks reserved for a future laser system.
Another system we have--not at all well known--is the Hellfire system fitted to LCS. This system:
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/u-s-navy-lcs-receive-upgraded-c-uas-hellfire-missiles/
Cheaper than RAM. Can stop both surface and aerial threats. Understand that even a laser can only engage one target at a time. A swarm, coming from multiple directions, can defeat them. Hellfire is fire and forget. They receive targetting info at launch, then seek out their target on their own. The entire magazine can be emptied against a swarm, and defeat each target simultaneously, indpendently, on their own. These launchers are "not the most complex things in the world" to install. And they're small enough that "more than one" should be able to be fitted to a hull like the new frigate's.
But, this a "baby steps" affair. We can't install anything on nonexisting hulls. So, we start with a hull we know we can produce. (We just produced ten of them...) We modify it as little as possible to suit the basics of its new role, both for cost reasons, and to kick off production. Then, we upgrade through succeeeding batches. Already, an ASW variant has been mentioned. More can certainly be done. Mk 38, Hellfire, and lasers when they're mature are not impossible to incorporate into this design. But, if we jump to the future right now, and try to go for the "whole package" on the first go, we will be exactly repeating the past mistakes of large, expensive, slow, unwieldy projects which do not even get off the ground. Previous Message
The littoral space has been proven extremely deadly. 3 smart guys, an Xbox controller, and a cheap drone can easily take out a surface combatant.
Hopefully, our very expensive ships with large, vulnerable crews are being made much more resistant to drone attacks and quickly.
It's well known that the tank community in many nations was shocked to see how easily drones can kill tanks and have been working very late nights trying to find ways to prevent $250 drones from easily killing multi-million dollar tanks and the their 4 crewmen.
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