“Harpoon may not be fast or stealthy, but we have several thousand of them I would imagine.”
The Harpoon Block II weapon costs $1.2 million dollars per copy. You might be shocked at how few we have. I doubt it’s in the thousands. You might also find that many of them are old and in need of upgrade or refurbishment.
When I was the civilian Program Manager on a $50 million dollar Navy project I was surprised at how meager actual purchases were compared with potential needs. The Navy simply doesn’t have the money to fully equip their platforms for war if those platforms aren’t currently being used in a war. There has been little need for Harpoons so you can bet the purchases are just enough to keep the Boeing line active and no more.
The US Navy was equipped with a remotely controlled mine hunter made by BAE. They cost $45,000 per copy. The Iranians have an estimated 50,000 mines in warehouses. I asked my Navy counterpart how many of these mine hunters the Navy had. (They are one time use and can not be brought back aboard as they are armed for the mission and must be destroyed if no mine is found.) He said, “Not many.”
Another way of asking the question you’ve posed is; “How many Phantom F-4’s are required to destroy a thousand Sopwith Camels?” It’s not possible to make this sort of comparison in any meaningful way.
Wikipedia says we built 7200 of them, and I don’t imagine we fired off most of those. Granted they are getting old.
“Quantity has a quality of its own. “