Why the Navy Spent $1.8 BILLION on Missiles It Can't Afford

Why the Navy Spent $1.8 BILLION on Missiles It Can't Afford Since October 2023, American warships in the Red Sea have fired over $1.8 billion in interceptor missiles — defending commercial shipping lanes against drones that cost a few thousand dollars each. A single SM-6 missile: $4 million. A single laser shot: $3.50. That is not a typo. And that number is about to change everything about how the United States Navy fights. In this video, we trace the full story of Navy laser weapons — from the first shot ever fired from a warship in 2014 (a 30-kilowatt prototype on the aging USS Ponce) to the 60-kilowatt HELIOS system now integrated into the Aegis Combat System aboard the USS Preble. We explain what lasers can do, what they can't do, and why the real revolution isn't the beam — it's the bottomless magazine. This is not hype. This is the math that is forcing the US Navy to rethink how it defends every ship in the fleet. #navy #usnavy #aircraftcarriers #navaloperations #militarydocumentary