Still Thinking About the Swarm

Tonight I took a break from reading and did a bit of surfing on YouTube, something I almost never do anymore. Somehow or another I found myself watching videos on Iranian swarming boats, and picked out these two among the several I watched.

The two types of boats being shown are the Serag class Rocket Fast Speed Boats that shoot 107mm rockets, to good effect too btw; and the Zulfiqar class Missile Fast Speed Boats that I believe shoot an Iranian produced of the C-701 ASMs.

I do not know how many of these boats have been built, but I remember reading a PRESSTV news transcript that said Iran intended to build 300 Serag class Rocket Fast Speed Boats.

That ~1200 ton target the boats are shooting at ended up taking at least 18 hits (don't ask me how I know, I just do). It's easier to hit a bigger ship with unguided rockets, particularly a taller ship like both versions the Littoral Combat Ship. An even worse thought though is what 107mm rockets would do to the composite structure of the DDG-1000.

The Littoral Combat Ship is supposed to be optimally designed to fight that specific small boat swarm threat. Here is my problem though. Both versions of the Littoral Combat Ship have the Mk110 57mm multi-purpose, small caliber gun that can fire salvos up to 220 rounds per minute, and has a range of 9 miles (~15 km). Unfortunately the MK110 57mm only has 400 rounds in the turret and two ready service magazines with 240 rounds each. I just don't like the idea that if you shoot for only 2 seconds 30 times, you have consumed 60% of your turret ammo and have to begin thinking about reloading magazines in the middle of a fire fight.