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Marines 'assault' US beaches in amphibious drill By Paul Richards (AFP) – 1 day ago CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina — With beach landings, 25 naval ships and an air assault, the United States and eight other countries are staging a major amphibious exercise on the US East Coast this week, fighting a fictional enemy that bears more than a passing resemblance to Iran. After a decade dominated by ground wars against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the drill dubbed Bold Alligator is "the largest amphibious exercise conducted by the fleet in the last 10 years," said Admiral John Harvey, head...

Underscoring its desire to keep U.S. aircraft carriers from the Persian Gulf, a senior Iranian military commander today announced his possible plan to ambush the American fleet. Chalk this one up to more bluster, or part of a mounting back and forth rhetoric headed nowhere good, either way - Tehran plans to rely on its subs. Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad, Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri told Fars that Iran has the finest electic diesel submarines in the world, and that while the U.S. has focused on Tehran's "astonishing surface capabilities," it has forgotten about the underwater threat....

‘Iran stealth subs could lie in wait to hunt hostile aircraft carriers’ TEHRAN – The deputy commander of the Armed Forces has said that Iranian stealth submarines are able to lie in wait in the Persian Gulf to target hostile aircraft carriers that are moving near them. “If an ordinary submarine submerges in the Persian Gulf, it could be the worst threat to the enemy. It is one of the Americans’ fears because our submarines are covered with coatings that do not allow sound to travel through them and do not reflect sound waves sent by (enemy vessels’) sonar systems,”...

Iran has the ability to temporarily block the Strait of Hormuz but the U.S. “would take action and reopen” it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday, making clear to Iran that in threatening to close the straits, it is literally playing with fire. . “They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview for CBS's “Face the Nation." “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.” Blocking the strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman...

The oil minister of the United Arab Emirates has announced that a new oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz is nearly complete. The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline project would ship crude from the UAE’s main oil producing region to the port of Fujairah on the country’s eastern coast, bypassing the vital Strait. The timing of the announcement could not be more prescient; Iranian officials have recently made their most threatening remarks to date about “closing” the Strait of Hormuz as fresh U.S. and international sanctions have put the regime on the defensive. In recent weeks alone, the head...

Iran's army chief told the United States that a US aircraft carrier which left the area because of Iranian naval exercises should not return to the Gulf, the state news agency reported on Tuesday. "Iran will not repeat its warning ... the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," Ataollah Salehi told IRNA.

Amid a verbal row with the United States over blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route, Iran proclaimed on Friday that it will start testing long range missiles in the Persian Gulf. "On Saturday morning the Iranian navy will test several of its long-range missiles in the Persian Gulf," navy deputy commander Admiral Mahmoud Moussavi told Fars news agency.

The mullahs are playing with fire in Strait of HormuzThe leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to rattle their scimitars, threatening a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. Bring it on. Iran is under increasing pressure to abandon its nuclear program. The United States is about to ban commerce with Iran's central bank. The European Union is considering a new round of economic sanctions and joining the U.S. oil embargo against Iran. Saudi Arabia has decided to increase production to fill the gap should Europeans stop buying Iranian oil. In response, Tehran is threatening to stop all Persian...

TEHRAN (FNA) - Senior Iranian commanders revealed on Friday that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy and the US navy ships have entered several armed clashes and confrontations in the Persian Gulf since 1986. "During the 8-year long sacred defense (against the Iraqi invasion from 1980 to 1988) we were defending against the Iraqis who were the endpoint of the arrow of the world arrogance (the US), but in the last one and a half years of the war, we were in vast and direct confrontation with the Americans in the Persian Gulf," IRGC Navy Commander General Ali Fadavi...

NEW YORK - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called on NATO naval forces to withdraw from the Gulf, calling them a threat to security.

Iran Plans to Equip Submarines with Advanced Missile-Launchers TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior commander of the Iranian Army's naval force announced on Sunday that the country plans to equip its submarines and other underwater vessels with home-made missile-launching systems. Due to submarines' limitations for firing torpedoes, "we have decided to equip our submarines with missile-launching systems, which of course needs a highly complicated technology and know-how," Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri told FNA. "To fire a missile from a submarine, the target and missile-launch specifications should be sent to the submarine very fast, and this communication...

Tiny Qatar Flexes Muscles In No-Fly Libya Campaign by The Associated Press SOUDA BAY AIR BASE, Greece March 28, 2011, 10:49 am ET In Libya's skies, Qatar is punching above its weight. From an air base in Crete, the tiny Persian Gulf nation has started its biggest, farthest combat deployment — including a third of its fighter-jet fleet — and given the first Arab face to the Western-led coalition hoping to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi's firepower. For the oil- and gas-rich country that brought the world Al-Jazeera TV and recently won the right to host the 2022 World...

Fighter market heats up in the Gulf David Donald Sunday, 20 February, 2011 In recent times, the focus of the world’s fighter manufacturers has been distracted away from the Gulf region to the major competitions in Brazil and India. However, the announcement towards the end of last year of a huge potential order by Saudi Arabia served as a reminder that the Middle East remains a market offering enormous potential, as several Gulf States seek to further modernise their fighter forces. Last October, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) released details of a proposed sale of vast proportions to...

'Iran navy to build new destroyers' An Iranian destroyer (file photo) Iranian Navy's Deputy Commander Rear Admiral Gholam-Reza Khadem Bigham says the navy aims to build new destroyers with state-of-the-art design and defense systems. “The assembly line for the production of missile-launching frigates with advanced systems and modern features have been set up,” IRNA quoted Rear Admiral Bigham as saying on Friday. He hailed the country's first domestically-build and developed guided missile destroyer Jamaran and said, “The military capabilities … need to meet our defense requirements to protect the Islamic Republic's interests against aerial, surface and sub-surface threats.” Last February,...

  "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. ... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." — George Frideric Handel, "Messiah" WASHINGTON — This magnificent musical work penned by Handel in 1741 is heard all around the world in this season. His powerful lyrics are drawn directly from the Bible and remind us all to be thankful for the birth, sacrifice and resurrection of the Lamb of God.In our family Christmas tradition, Handel's oratorio is performed at our Christmas Eve...

Bahrain and Dubai are expecting to get more MGM-164 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Last week the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified the U.S. Congress about the planned sale of 130 ATACMS missiles carrying Unitary Warheads T2K (MGM-164), equipping the two gulf states with medium range ballistic missile capability for the first time. According to the agency, the United Arab Emirates’ Army will get 100 ATACMS missiles while Bahrain buy additional 30. The recent announcement includes only missiles, but no launchers, as both countries already have the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) in service.

France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is now en route to the region and will arrive there at the end of October, when a quarter of the world's nuclear aircraft carriers will gather in the stratgeic waters. The French carrier is accompanied by two frigates, an attack submarine, a re-fuelling tanker, 3,000 sailors and 27 aircraft. "The force would help allied navies fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and send jets to support NATO in the skies above Afghanistan," said the commander of the group, Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard. This is while new opinion polls show that a vast...

The United States has posted a second aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Persian Gulf and northern Arabian Sea. The announcement came from the Pentagon Tuesday, Oct. 19, two days after the vessel put into port at Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. DEBKAfile's sources note that this is the first time in two years that Washington had deployed two aircraft carriers at same time - not just one - in waters opposite Iran and Afghanistan.

TOKYO (AFP) – Militant jihadists have claimed that a suicide bomber blew himself up on a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, the US monitoring group SITE said. Mitsui OSK Lines had previously reported that one of its tankers, the M Star, appeared to have been hit by an explosion July 28 in the waterway between Iran and Oman. SITE said the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam claimed in a message on jihadist websites that it had placed a suicide bomber on the tanker, identifying him as Ayyub al-Taishan. It said the attack was carried out in...

There were no U.S. Navy or maritime coalition vessels near a Japanese supertanker damaged in an incident in the Strait of Hormuz, a Fifth Fleet spokesman said. Asked if there were any U.S. navy or coalition vessels close to the supertanker at the time, he said: “No, there were none close to the ship ... none of our vessels were involved.”

MUSCAT/TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese oil tanker damaged in an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping lanes, was being diverted to a port in the UAE on Wednesday. One of the 31 crew aboard was injured but no oil leaked from the M Star very large crude carrier (VLCC), according to the Japanese transport ministry. It said an explosion occurred onboard at around 00:30 a.m. local time (2030 GMT Tuesday), but the cause was unclear. "A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (ship owner Mitsui O.S.K.) believes...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates said Friday that a Japanese oil tanker was hit by an explosives-laden dinghy in the Persian Gulf in what would be the first attack in the strategic waterway where millions of barrels of oil are transported each day. The report — which came days after an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for attacking the vessel — raised fears about the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for many petroleum exporting countries.

July 23, 2010 Offering to Aid Talks, U.S. Challenges China on Disputed Islands By MARK LANDLER HANOI, Vietnam — Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically significant islands in the South China Sea. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said that the United States...

The U.S. Navy has extended by one year the time its first high-altitude drone will monitor oil shipments and other maritime activity in the Persian Gulf region, according to officials. Northrop Grumman Corp. built the plane, a demonstration version of its Global Hawk that's used by the Air Force, as the first model in a $9 billion Navy program for 68 unmanned planes to provide reconnaissance in five areas of the world. The aircraft has been flying over the Gulf region since February 2009 and was slated to end its patrols this year to undergo additional stateside testing and development....

The first really clear indication that serious planning was underway to strike at Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons site came a month ago when British news outlets reported that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to cross its airspace en route to Iranian targets. Yesterday, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said publicly that his country was willing to live with the consequences of a strike against Iran despite the enormous amount of trade between the two countries and the likelihood of riots after a strike. Today, you have Sen. Joe Lieberman in Israel saying the U.S. would...

BANDAR ABBAS, Iran -- Iranian helicopters scattered flowers into the Persian Gulf waters as family members and relatives remembered the 290 passengers killed when a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian airliner 22 years ago.

Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (CSG) will relieve the Dwight D. Eisenhower CSG as Commander, Task Force 50 July 2, beginning a routine deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR). Under Task Force 50, Truman CSG will conduct close air support missions in support of coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan while conducting Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in the AOR. Eisenhower CSG has operated in the 5th Fleet AOR since Jan. 25 with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 aircraft flying 2,970 combat sorties and 17,730 cumulative flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)....

As we first reported last week, in an article that was met with much original skepticism, the Pentagon has now confirmed that a fleet of 12 warships has passed the Suez Canal, and is now likely awaiting orders to support the escalation in the Persian Gulf. The attached image from Stratfor shows the latest positioning of US aircraft carrier groups as of June 23: the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) is now right next to USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), both of which areAs for the catalyst the two carriers may be anticipating, we provide the following update from the Gulf Daily...

The Gulf has come under increasing attack from Islamic insurgents, a leading analyst said. A former British intelligence officer said that insurgents have obtained increased access to such weapons as unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-ship missiles. The analyst said this would enhance any insurgency attack on shipping in the Gulf. "More advanced weaponry is now proliferating from state armories to terrorist groups, including drones, anti-ship missiles and shoulder-launched projectiles capable of defeating reactive armor," Paul Burke, a leading analyst said. "These weapons provide a dramatic increase in potential impact, providing terrorist groups with the capability to mount a strategic strike...

Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (CSG) entered the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) June 18 after completing a successful transit through the Suez Canal. Truman CSG is relieving Dwight D. Eisenhower CSG as part of a routine rotation of forces during a scheduled deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Maritime Security Operations (MSO) and theater security cooperation (TSC) efforts in the region. "I am very proud of the men and women of the Truman Carrier Strike Group as we join the 5th Fleet," said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, commander, Carrier Strike Group 10. "We have trained hard...

The United Arab Emirates expects to finalize a $7 billion contract to buy Lockheed Martin's high-altitude missile defense system in the next few months, officials of the U.S. defense giant say. The deal would mark the first time that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system has been sold to a foreign state and underlines Washington's efforts to establish a Persian Gulf-wide shield against Iranian ballistic missiles among U.S. allies in the region. These states, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, are within easy missile range by Iran, lying as they do across the gulf, and...

The 1991 spill into the Persian Gulf, which began on January 21, was purposely caused by the Iraqis in order to delay or prevent a threatened US-led invasion of Kuwait, including possible landings by US Marines. On February 23, American forces, including the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Marine Division, the 1st Light Armored Infantry, overran Iraqi defenses quickly, but expressed shock at the extent of the environmental disaster surrounding them. The US lost 148 service members in combat, 458 were wounded in the First Gulf War which lasted from August 2, 1990, to February 28, 1991, when America and its...

The United Arab Emirates is pressing Washington about buying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. So is Israel. That's part of the United States' dilemma as it seeks to bolster the military forces of its Arab allies to counter Iran. The Americans also want their Arab friends, particularly the Persian Gulf states that neighbor Iran, to take more responsibility for their own defense at a time when the U.S. military is tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. The F-35 program headed by Lockheed Martin of Maryland has fallen badly behind schedule. On March 11, the Pentagon admitted to a 2-year lag...

The United Arab Emirates plans to host a four-day parley that would focus on air and missile defense. The second annual conference, titled "Annual Air and Missile Defence Summit," was scheduled to begin on May 30 in Abu Dhabi and include senior U.S. and other military commanders. "With the Middle East region being key to the global security, this summit aims to bring together all the key players to discuss the roadmap towards an integrated air defence strategy." conference director Grace Chng said. Organizers said the conference would focus on technology, interconnectivity and interoperability between military and industry. They said...

The Persian Gulf States have launched efforts to protect their territorial waters amid tension with neighboring Iran and threats from Al Qaida. Over the last two years, several Gulf Cooperation Council coast guards or navies have acquired or ordered fast patrol boats. They included Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Officials said the Gulf Arab countries were investing to expand their coast guards. "There is concern that terrorists could sneak into the area and carry out a major attack on energy installations," a GCC source said. The enhanced maritime security has resulted in confrontations between fishermen and...

The sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan last March 26 by a North Korean torpedo has prompted some Arab Gulf officials to wonder whether this would be a scenario that they would likely face with a nuclear-armed Iran in the future. North Korea, now equipped with nuclear arms, appears to have grown bolder in its provocations of its U.S.-allied neighbor in the south and other parts of East and Southeast Asia. An international team of investigators concluded that the warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. Seoul’s reaction has thus far been mild compared to its loss of...

debkafile's military sources report a decision by the Obama administration to boost US military strength in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions in the short term with an extra air and naval strike forces and 6,000 Marine and sea combatants. Carrier Strike Group 10, headed by the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, sails out of the US Navy base at Norfolk, Virginia Friday, May 21. On arrival, it will raise the number of US carriers off Iranian shores to two. Up until now, President Barack Obama kept just one aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Iran, the USS...

Despite its efforts over the last several years, Iran is not yet the naval power it hopes to become, according to a Moscow analyst, but Tehran already has sufficient capacity to disrupt shipments of oil in the Persian Gulf, an ability that already “represents a serious danger and requires an adequate response from the international community.” In an assessment of “The Naval Power of Iran: From Intention to Reality” prepared for the Moscow Near Eastern Institute, V.V. Yevseyev argues that most of what Iran has done in this sector to date represents “a cover” for plans to engage in “diversionary...

In Phases Two and Three of Iran's biggest sea exercise ever (May 6-7), debkafile's military sources report its Navy and Revolutionary Guards acted out a scenario for driving US naval forces out of the Persian Gulf after defeating them - as well as responding to potential retaliatory American WMD strikes. Thursday night, May 6, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile informed the 15 Security Council members he invited to dinner at UN headquarters, New York, that his government would "definitely continue its nuclear program." They all attended including a low-ranking US official. The eight-day war game, dubbed "The Last Prophet"...

Iran began new naval war games in the Gulf on Thursday to show the Islamic state's "power to defend" itself against any attack, state television reported. was the second such display of military might in less than a month. The maneuvers by Iran's regular navy, due to last eight days in the waterway crucial for global oil supplies, coincided with rising tension in Tehran's long-running nuclear dispute with Western powers. The United States is lobbying U.N. Security Council members to back a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, to press it into curbing sensitive atomic work the West suspects is...

Iran's navy will on Wednesday start eight days of war games in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman, state television said, less than two weeks after the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards held manoeuvres in the Gulf. Habibollah Sayari, commander of the navy, said the exercises would display its defence capability, Al Alam television, Iran's Arabic-language satellite television, reported on Tuesday. In exercises held in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz between April 22 and 25, official media said the Guards tested missiles and a new speedboat capable of destroying enemy ships. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday called...

Iran's navy commander has confirmed the flight of an Iranian aircraft near a US warship in the waters of the Persian Gulf. On Tuesday, CNN quoted a senior US military officer as saying that an F27 aircraft of the Iranian Navy flew as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. "US warships tread the free waters of the Gulf of Oman and it is Iranian navy's duty to conduct routine surveillance flights in the region," Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the Iranian Navy commander, said in a Tuesday news conference. "The F27 plane of the navy flew above...

Leading U.S. military officers and strategists have assessed that Iran no longer fears a military attack by Washington. A symposium by U.S. Central Command and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy concluded that the leadership in Teheran does not fear the prospect of an American military strike. The participants in the joint conference asserted that the Iranian concern over a U.S. attack dissipated in 2005 when Washington was seen as heavily engaged in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq. "From 2002 to 2005, Iran sought to prevent UN Security Council action on the issue, believing that resolutions or similar measures would...

The United States has determined that the United Arab Emirates could repel any Iranian air campaign. A report on a conference sponsored by U.S. Central Command asserted that the UAE Air Force was powerful enough to counter any Iranian attack. The January 2010 conference, also sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the UAE has accumulated an advanced combat air fleet that could strike Iran. "In addition, Gulf aircraft such as the Mirage-2000, F-15, and F-16 are all capable of threatening Iranian targets, and the UAE Air Force is deemed quite capable of holding its own against...

A senior Iranian Air Force officer does not rule out reports that an Iranian fighter jet might have flown over a US aircraft carrier last week in the Arabian Sea. The incident was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. According to the report, a plane belonging to the Iranian Navy was flying as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. The Eisenhower was in the northern Arabian Sea when the Iranian maritime patrol aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of the vessel, US military officials claimed. Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force said that...

Pentagon officials judge Iran’s Army Day parade to be part posturing and part concept demonstration. But they also contend that Tehran is making progress in its weapon programs that have armed the country with a force of 1,000 ballistic missiles with ranges of 90-1,200 mi. “Both the surface-to-air missile equipment and stealth aircraft mockups [in the April 18 display] are judged to be bogus,” says a senior Pentagon official. “During the parade they displayed two stealth aircraft mockups, one manned and one remotely piloted aircraft. They are likely [variants of] the Safreh Mahi (Flatfish or Stingray) design, which Iran announced...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is expected to begin air, land and sea exercises in the Persian Gulf, perhaps as soon as Thursday, according to Iran's IRIB news agency. A U.S. military official separately confirmed to CNN that the United States has observed in recent days Iran is "relocating surface and air assets" for what appears to be a major exercise. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. The exercise could last five days, according to Iranian media reports. Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guard, is quoted in...

If diplomacy fails and Iran gets a nuclear bomb, the U.S. would still have ways to discourage Tehran from using these terrifying weapons. But there are limits on what even the world's sole superpower can do to contain a nuclear-armed Iran and blunt its influence in the volatile Middle East. U.S. officials insist they are not resigned to a nuclear Iran and are pressing negotiations to prevent it from joining the world's club of nuclear-armed nations. At the same time, though, the administration and the Pentagon are clearly anxious to avoid a military confrontation with Tehran. So Washington has set...

Military experts say the Fifth Fleet has come a long way since Iranian gunboats crippled it within hours in a notorious war game five years ago. In fact, says John Pike, president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Global Security Web site, the Navy was well on its way to solving the challenge of fending off the swarming swift boats before the war game began. In that test, an enemy "red team" headed by retired Martine Corps Gen. Paul Van Riper deployed the gun boats and propeller-driven suicide planes to paralyze the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. It...

Israel is said to have deployed intelligence agents throughout the Gulf region. A senior Gulf Cooperation Council official asserted that Israel's Mossad has established an espionage network in Gulf Arab states. The official said the Israeli agents operate under the cover of European executives. "If we arrest any one of them, though, it could be a major breakthrough," Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan, a senior security official in the United Arab Emirates, said. Khalfan, police chief of the UAE city of Dubai, confirmed an Israeli newspaper report that the Mossad has long been working in the Gulf region. The report said...