Though no one wants to admit it, surface ships* have been highly vulnerable for decades. The only reason they’ve been able to survive so far is that for the most part they don’t bring vessels within range of an adversary’s anti-ship weapons**. The enemies fought didn’t have the long range missile tech because they couldn’t afford it and/didn’t have the tech base to build/maintain them. Ships aren’t even armored any more because they decided to trade protection for speed***.
Now a swarm of cheap aerial delivery vehicles can overwhelm ship defenses. It’ll only get worse when they use the lessons learned to build submersible unmanned vehicles. Unmanned surface ships already exist…
Nothing will be done until we get a bloody nose. Strategic planners are always ready to fight the previous war (see Maginot Line, Spanish Armada, and the operation to rescue the Iranian hostages for examples).
*Submarines at sea are safe-ish for the moment, but their days are also numbered.
**You think people would have picked up on this during the Faukland (or Malvinas) Island war, when the British ships Hermes and Invincible were heavily damaged by Argentinian anti-ship missiles (though stupid operational practices by the Brits contributed). The Brits almost lost their one carrier to an undetected Argentinian submarine, but the sub suffered a malfunction that prevented torpedo fire.
***Look up photos of the USS Stark after a rowboat of explosives was detonated alongside her.
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