US Destroyer Fired Warning Shots At "Harassing" Iranian Fast-Attack Ship

Zerohedge ^ | August 25, 2016 | Tyler Durden

[Eric in the Ozarks]

An earlier poster on this story suggested the Navy should fire paint balls of pink ink at the scabby little boats. Splash them good and send them back to port sporting a real hideous color...

[Alter Kaker]

For not boarding a USN Destroyer? They can board all they’d like, I just don’t recommend it.

[Scrambler Bob]

Probably did not plan on boarding.

They may have packed to the gunwales with HE.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

Ship? In the video which I saw they were maybe gunboats but certainly not ‘ships’. Somebody is trying to stir the pot.

[showme_the_Glory]

They wanna start some feces? I say sink everyone in range asap.

[aces]

yea we need to get back to a big skull on the side, maybe partial skull with reagans face and a comment saying, if you can see me, you are dead..and mean it..keep them back, whats next get used to harrassment until one day they fire when close and kill folks..

[2harddrive]

Because the bigger guns would be LOUDER to the distant Iranian ships, is why they were chosen, I bet.

[pabianice]

I believe this incident involved a USN Typhoon-class patrol boat. They are well armed.

[Robert357]

Personally, I would have preferred something with a bit more authority than .50 BMG, but that did get the point across, so I guess it was a good call. Don't get me wrong .50 BMG is an anti-armor round and in WW-2 when fired from planes sunk some ships with hits in the right places.

Still, I would wager that a few rounds from either the two Mk38 chain guns, two Mk19 automatic grenade launchers, might have gotten a bit more respect. (The MK-38 is a 25-mm machine gun installed for ship self-defense to counter High Speed Maneuvering Surface Targets (HSMST).)

[Ancesthntr]

“Because the bigger guns would be LOUDER to the distant Iranian ships, is why they were chosen, I bet.”

---

But the ships (boats, really, these are fast patrol boats) weren’t that far away - they were reported to have gotten within 300 yards of our destroyer. Phalanx is quiet audible at that range, and the sight of 50 or 100 rounds splashing into the water near you would tend to wake you up, if the sound didn’t.

[pabianice]

PC-7, USS Squall?

[pabianice]

Sorry. Typhoon-class.

[Robert357]

.50 BMG versus 25mm chain gun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXLEURxozc

[dynachrome]

The next one or one after will be a suicide bomber boat. Will the US ships be allowed to defend themselves?

[River_Wrangler]

Just fire a warning shot through the left temple. That usually works.

[PIF]

Some of those fast Iranian boats carry 2 or more Silkworm anti-ship missiles ... which would be launched before the other fast boats made contact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkworm_(missile)

[2harddrive]

Now they say the warning shots were merely 3 or 4 .50 Browning machine gun rounds.