They are trying to gauge how many boats they are going to need to use to ram and blow holes in our ships in order for some to get through and hit the target. If they do this, there are going to be hundreds of small fast boats laden with explosives running zigzag patterns into the ships.
All my armchair opinion of course.
That was my thought too. A USS Cole incident at sea I suspect. I wonder how close to our ships we're going to let them get before we repel them.