Posted on 02/12/2012 5:57:03 PM PST by Hunton Peck
Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said on Sunday.
Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike U.S. forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear program comes under attack.
"They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack craft," Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. "Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory."
"We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course ... the development of their nuclear program," Fox, who heads the U.S. Fifth Fleet, said at a briefing on the fleet's base in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.
Military experts say the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf - which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers - is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's navy.
But ever since al Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat killed 17 sailors on board the destroyer U.S.S. Cole in a port in Yemen in 1996, Washington has been wary of the vulnerability of its huge battleships to bomb attacks by small enemy craft.
Asked whether the U.S. Navy was prepared for an attack or other trouble in the Gulf, Fox said: "We are very vigilant...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I don’t think suicide boats would do any harm. In fact I can’t think of too many things which would work worse, at least if their intent is to ram our ships.
There are other problems tho. The exocet used by the Argentinians showed how vulnerable even high tech ships can be. There are probably naval equivalents to the RPG. It is a slob’s weapon but they can kill a tank, knock down a low flying helicopter etc. It seems countries like Russia, China etc. turn out these mass produced medium tech devices and sell (or give) them to any terrorist country or group who wants them.
If they have hand held missiles which could hit a ship at a mile of so and are aimed rather than guided by radar or GPS or something else which can be defended agianst, we are in trouble.
..Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.
Good thing the US had the foresight to get rid of the S-3 sub hunters a few years ago.
Iran must be convinced that messing with American ships will lead to very large areas of scorched Iranian earth.
and doing away with the P-3 for P-8 which can’t don much of anything.
I suspect that the control signal to the drone must have been encrypted. I doubt they could have broken the cypher without someone on the inside helping them, something I doubt happened. The drone may have been disabled, through mechanical failure or hostile action.
The only way Obama is making the right decisions is by pure luck or for the wrong reasons.
I would say closer to two minutes...Just long enough to take a smoke break, come back in push a few buttons, then its Miller time...
Again...
It almost takes the fun out of it...
Look on the bright side...
We did find out that our SM-2MR’s worked real well on “bomber” sized targets, that were full of naked dead people already, flown by someone who was deaf, not listening to 121.5 (Guard)...
Captain Rogers waited almost to the minimum engagement range for that system before going red and free for that shot...
If the Iranians want to play again, they do so ignoring the outcome of that, and other previous engagements...
Stupid is as stupid does...
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