Pentagon Says Ships Harassed by Iran

AP via SFGate ^ | 1/7/8 | PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. "It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday as a U.S. Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were on their way into the Persian Gulf and passing through the strait — a major oil shipping route.

Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.

There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire" in self defense.

The official said he didn't have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like "we're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes."

[toddlintown]

They didn’t man the guns until they received a radioed threat.

Somebody have the former captain of the Cole give them a call.

[RexBeach]

I say the next time those people rush our ships we blow’em out of the water!

[mpackard]

My daughter confirms this. She told me about it last year when she was in the Gulf for several months.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Iranians must have short memories. The USN wiped the floor with em last time.

[Logical me]

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats

Well, it looks like the bal!s we used to have left. What a joke America has become. I'm ashamed.

[ichabod1]

I don’t want to hear this. I want to hear about Iraqi gunboats on fire.

[Thrownatbirth]

It takes more than a threat over the VHF and few boxes in the water to constitute a “serious provocation” where USN ships were ready to fire. The Iranians probably had a fire control radar locked-on to the one of the US ships, giving the US CO carte blanche to return fire.

[ASA Vet]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949564/posts

And

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949565/posts

[Mr. K]

as soon as they threaten to kill you i say they are fair game

shred them with a few thousand rounds of minigun

[Hoof Hearted]

"I don’t want to hear this. I want to hear about Iraqi gunboats on fire."

Really?!!!

I'd prefer if if it were Iranian gunboats. (I'm not aware of any problems with "Iraqi gunboats" that for some reason you want to see in flames.)

[BlueNgold]

OK - anyone who thinks the captain acted inappropriately by not firing has clearly never been through the SoH on a warship.

There are several things to consider:
1. Both Iran and Oman claim the SoH as sovereign territory. Challenges, shadowing, and ‘escorts’ are literally an everyday practice. This was clearly an escalation - and could be a harassing maneuver designed to record tactics. This could be considered an intel gathering exercise.
2. The SoH is the only way out of the Arabian Gulf. An incident in the SoH has the potential to close the shipping channel drastically affect oil shipments, oil prices, and general shipping in the area.
3. If anyone thinks that somehow crews had to be mobilized in order to have the ability to fire they are completely unaware of the FC systems on modern cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.
4. The southern coast of Iran is littered with Chinese silkworm missiles. If and when shooting starts in the AG it will get ugly in a hurry - and that means seconds and minutes, not hours. The Iranians will target commercial shipping, military vessels, and their less radical neighbors all the while claiming self defense.
5. The report does not indicate which ship was ‘ready to fire’ and where she sat in the line of 3. This information matters in determining whether the task group commander was ready to order a general fusillade or whether it was an independent action of self defense being contemplated. (Also, for the record, the duty operations officer at 5th Fleet was almost certainly on the horn and aware of the situation.)
6. You hold your fire until the last possible moment. That’s what the good guys do - and we are the good guys.

[gura]

"Fighting continued when the Iranian frigate Sahand departed Bandar Abbas and challenged elements of an American surface group. The frigate was spotted by two VA-95 A-6Es while they were flying surface combat air patrol for USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16).

Sahand fired missiles at the A-6Es, and the Intruders replied with two Harpoons and four laser-guided Skipper bombs. Joseph Strauss added a Harpoon. Most, if not all, of the U.S. weapons hit the Iranian ship.

Fires blazing on Sahand's decks eventually reached her magazines, causing an explosion that helped sink the ship."

[SmithL]

April 1988. Remind me, who was Commander-in-Chief?

[GATOR NAVY]

Sister ship got messed up too but unfortunately survived (i.e. we didn't sink it when we could have). Here it is in Dec 2005 on our transit through SOH.

[onedoug]

Two hundred yards?!?! Some ROE.

[ichabod1]

:) Heh. My bad.

[antiRepublicrat]

Say hello to my little friend

Okay, maybe overkill. Can we use the shredder on manual mode?

[Scythian]

We learn nothing do we? Even after the Khol when bend over backwards, how very disappointing ...

[JFC]

I just got a call from my husband saying our nephew is on one of those ships. He said they had their guns ready to attack but were not given orders to do so.

Our Navy is the best of the best.... I wish they would have shot them.