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Originally Posted by Molon Labe
I'm at a loss to understand how a ship supposedly designed to fight in the littorals can have practically zero air/missile defense capability. Coastal areas are kind of known for being in range of land based aircraft (Stark) and coastal missile batteries (Hanit). I think the lack of ESSM on this thing is just inexcusable.
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Yup. As a matter of fact a commander once told me that the 'reach' of the littorals - that is to say, how far water can be from the shore for it to be considered littoral - is in part defined by the reach of shore-based weapons. Through the Age of Sail the narrow effective range of cannons in forts meant the littoral was defined in terms of hundreds of metres. By the World Wars coastal artillery extended that to thousands of metres. Now, the littorals are essentially defined by shore-based missiles and aircraft. It is foolish to ignore them.