When you bomb a consulate with full diplomatic immunity, the gloves are going to come off in unexpected ways.
Not that Iran has clean hands in this regard, witness the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage crisis. But that was 44 years ago in the midst of the initial fervor of the Iranian Revolution.
There are “flapping” (no rotary propellers) drones that resemble dragon flies, birds etc.
Solar powered, they can be directed to land in the line of sight of their target, waiting. They could wait for days or weeks, just looking for that one programmed face. When the camera eye recognizes the target person, it flies in and explodes against their head.
At fairly low cost, they are demonstrating to the world, and the US Navy, the embarrassing obsolescence of our naval force and its weapons.
Trading million dollar missiles for $20K drones and $100k missiles is a losing equation, when our best ships only carry two dozen of the million dollar missiles, and then have to leave the theater for a friendly theater dockside reload.
This is a favor because it’s better to learn this now, rather than learning it like the Prince of Wales and Repulse discovered as Singapore fell.
The US Navy is MORE obsolete in 2024 than battleships were in 1940.
Please thank the Houthis. This is much cheaper than losing aircraft carriers in the first weeks of a Taiwan intervention, for example.
In some British commonwealth countries, “yacht” means sailboat and “launch” means powerboat. It’s a matter of differing linguistic habits. The old British West Indies have a mix of the language habits.