“It’s kind of amazing how the Navy has held up with no losses, but the cost has been pretty enormous,” Clark said. “The estimates are the Navy has used up $1 billion-plus worth of interceptors to shoot down these drone and missile threats.”

For now, the conflict appears to be on pause, possibly due to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that was announced on Jan. 19. But the Navy will need years to replenish its supply of missiles, and that puts the service in a bad position if the United States and China went to war today, Clark said.

In January, the Navy revealed that it had fired nearly 400 munitions since October 2023 as part of combat operations in the Red Sea, including 120 SM-2 missiles, 80 SM-6 missiles, and a combined total of 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles. The per unit cost for these missiles is between $12.5 and $28.7 million for SM-3s, about $4.3 million per SM-6, and up to $2.5 million per SM-2, according to The War Zone.

But by mid 2024, the Navy shifted to using less expensive Sidewinders and Hellfire missiles to shoot down Houthi drones, according to Janes. Each of the Sidewinder and Hellfire typically cost about half a million dollars and about $150,000 respectively.