It was the most costly military simulation in the history of the US armed forces, and the results were catastrophic. Held in 2002 and with a planning budget of around $250 million over two years, the Millennium Challenge exercise involved a Blue team that stood for the United States and a Red team that symbolized a fictional state in the Persian Gulf, commonly interpreted as either Iran or Iraq. This exercise aimed to evaluate the US Defense Department’s post-Cold War strategies that focused on new technologies and doctrines. Despite the Blue Team’s perceived military and technological edge, the Red team, commanded by Marine Corps Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper, created utter chaos for their opponent by employing unexpected asymmetric and unconventional strategies. Notably, they executed a complex cruise missile strike followed by a barrage of explosive-laden kamikaze speedboats, which, in a single, intense 10-minute attack, sank 333 Blue team vessels and resulted in 20,000 simulated casualties for the opposing side. The exercise turned out to be such a failure that the Pentagon decided to impose unreasonable limitations on the Red team, effectively guaranteeing a win for the Blue team, which led Van Riper to resign as the team leader in protest. As a result of its complicated legacy, Millennium Challenge 2002 called into question the very advanced technologies it aimed to test, demonstrating that a few small boats, when used in synchronized swarms alongside a larger assault, could effectively outsmart larger warships, leading to potentially lethal outcomes. The Pentagon largely overlooked this lesson by favoring the Blue team after the Red team’s first win. Over twenty years later, the insights from that time are being observed on various global battlefields. A screen capture from a video dated June 12, 2024, shows an explosion on a vessel, which the Houthis claim is an assault on the Greek-owned MV Tutor in the Red Sea. Image: HOUTHI MEDIA CENTRE/Reuters. Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) equipped with explosives and other deadly payloads are emerging as a formidable weapon for military forces that might otherwise seem outmatched. In the midst of Russia’s continuing invasion, the Ukrainian forces have effectively forced Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet out of its secure base in Sevastopol, located in the annexed Crimean peninsula. This has been accomplished using an expanding arsenal of armed drone boats, which are not only successfully attacking other ships but also hitting land targets with their own kamikaze drones that are operated via first-person view. Additionally, they have been able to shoot down Russian aircraft with machine guns and surface-to-air missiles. In the Red Sea, the Houthi rebels from Yemen, who are supported by Iran, have attempted to use explosive-laden boats with limited success in reaction to Israel’s military efforts against Hamas in Gaza. Notably, they sank the Liberia-registered bulk carrier MV Tutor in June 2024 and have been regularly disrupting maritime traffic in the area. The tactic of using kamikaze boats is not unprecedented; the US Navy encountered this strategy in October 2000 when a small vessel packed with suicide bombers attacked the USS Cole, a destroyer, while it was in Aden Harbor, resulting in the deaths of 17 American sailors.
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