These Are the Entirely Crappy Warships Iran Says It’s Sending to the U.S. Coast

War is Boring ^ | February 9, 2014 | By David Axe

[Gen.Blather]

“All it really needs is one nuke and one Scud capable of elevating it to effective EMP altitude.”

A Saturday night special is a poor firearm. But plenty of people have been killed by them. You can only laugh at the enemy after you have killed him. To do so before is hubris.

[envisio]

I don’t care what they look like. If they come anywhere near America, blow them out of the water. have a gay themed tinker tape parade and put them all on the welfare rolls.

[Beagle8U]

They’re sending two so they can take turn towing eachother back to port.

[Bernard Marx]

...or simply pass off the device directly or indirectly while at open sea to another vessel for later deployment.

I think that's the real danger. We have far more to fear from merchant ships in U.S. harbors than from this current diversionary tactic.

[Blueflag]

There’s a couple classes of EMP - HEMP and SREMP.

HEMP is the classic high altitude EMP - the one that excites the ions/gamma rays in the miles-high atmosphere and really cooks things off over a wide line-of-sight area.

SREMP is Source Regional EMP which an area -effects EMP; from a few city block to a ‘metro’ area. SREMPS are direct effect, meaning the EMF they produce does the damage.

Won’t get into E1, E2 and E3, but only HEMP has all three. SREMP only two.

Both are bad news for those affected.

[Blueflag]

Oil burners for sure.

[12th_Monkey]

HA!!!

Muzzy’s don’t float

[Blueflag]

Sadly it takes two missiles to defeat the defense.

First explosion blinds the defense. Second one does the damage.

[12th_Monkey]

We all live in a turquoise submarine....a turquoise submarine

[Dallas59]

Knowing Muslims...how much explosive can they pack into that ship? What if they detonate it near a US warship?

[12th_Monkey]

EMP’s aren’t being taken seriously by our government

[Former Proud Canadian]

Please get into “E1, E2 and E3”

[SpinnerWebb]

Goliath laughed...

[Uncle Miltie]

Which is why they tested a barge-launched Short Range Ballistic Missile. That’s high enough to take out either coast.

[aegiscg47]

I used to think that as well, but after reading some actual studies on EMP recently I think they would need several hundred nukes to get the effect that is presented in fiction, movies, doomsday scenarios, etc. My opinion (and it's just an opinion) is that the EMP threat has been blown way out of proportion for whatever reason, more than likely funding to harden things, countermeasures, etc., but one, two, or three nukes will do a few weeks damage to localized areas, but not much else. In return they would be obliterated from the face of the earth.

[SpaceBar]

These boats sound like perfect targets for concrete bombs.

[Vermont Lt]

I agree with your premise. But a scud is not going to do that.

But again, laughing at the buck toothed japs in 1938, was fun too.

We need to take every threat seriously.

[WhiskeyX]

If Kharg were to sink in the mid-Atlantic, Sabalan would be in a pickle.

Given how there are no diplomatic relations due to Iran’s ongoing hostilities against the United States, a naval engagement in defense of the United States would be lawful under international law of warfare.

[Vermont Lt]

And those two on the right were formed nicely.

[lavaroise]

Wait. Watch the sheep take water and struck by disease and then Obama helping out...