Targeting naval fleets has become easy and defending them is expensive. The preferred weapon in the Red Sea so far is the newer model of the SM-2 missile.
The US Navy is consuming limited quantity missiles at a pace faster than the defense budgets that fund new versions. The writer believes that American military operations against the Houthis, although they are necessary to secure freedom of the seas, exhaust limited stocks of weapons that may be needed in more important theaters of operations. The author argues that the more materiel is depleted in the Middle East, the less it will be available to the West and Eurasia.