TEHRAN, May 28 (MNA) – The naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have received more than 100 missile-launching speed boats in the southern waters.
Bloomberg: Iran Warns U.S. on Naval Activity in the Gulf
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unveiled scores of new and upgraded defensive speedboats with a warning to the U.S. that it won’t shy away from challenging American naval power.
“Today we announce that wherever the Americans are, we’re right there beside you, and in the near future you will sense us even more,” IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said on the sidelines of a ceremony in the Persian Gulf, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.
While battling sanctions and a major coronavirus outbreak, Iran appears determined to keep striking a defiant tone as tensions with the U.S. simmer. A month ago, President Donald Trump ordered the navy to destroy any Iranian vessels harassing U.S. ships, after accusations that the IRGC’s craft dangerously approached American military vessels in what U.S. Central Command said were international waters.
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Update: Over 100 domestically-built speed boats join Iran’s IRGC fleet (MEHR News Agency)
WNU Editor: Iran is saying that these new Speed-boats will add to the security of the region .... Iran to tighten Persian Gulf security belt: General Hatami (MEHR News Agency).
The US Navy should blow those Iranian boats out of the water ASAP.
ReplyDeleteIf you can see them or detect them then, yes, blowing them out of the water might be workable. Also, you'd need to detect and blow a significant portion "out of the water." Even if a signification portion are "blown out of the water" the remaining ones can still do quite a bit of damage. I suspect it'd be fairly easy for Iran to sink a US aircraft carrier or pretty much any US Naval vessel. The problem would be the aftermath.
DeleteThere may come a time and a place where the US Navy must indeed try to "blow those Iranian boats out of the water." Know this though Iran will NOT be an easy foe to defeat.
As for doing this "ASAP," that may not be such a good idea. 1 ) We've been badly hurt by the government's REACTION to COVID-19 or more specifically the government's ridiculous OVERREACTION. While I think we can and will recover, it will take time and that's where our resources need to be directed. I simply don't see us being in a position to be able to fight the kind of sustained conflict so far from home right now that it would likely to take to properly confront a foe like Iran. 2.) The moment one of those vessels is "blown out of the water" we are in hot war against Iran. The US has taken a little over a 100,000 casualties due to COVID-19 and people are spooked. In a war against Iran we'd take many times that number of casualties within the first few hours. Furthermore COVID-19 casualties are primarily among the elderly and infirm. This is in contrast to the casualties resulting from a war with Iran. Iran would not discriminate. Since we can't seeb to handle something small like COVID-19, I certainly wouldn't trust our government to handle something like a fight with Iran nor do our people seem to have the mettle for it at this time.
This has run longer than intended. I leave you with a quote from Sun Tzu. "Know your enemy, know yourself, and you will always prevail. If you know yourself but not your enemy for every battle you win you will lose a battle. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy l, you will lose every time." I know its a paraphrase.
Neither understanding themselves nor our enemies seems an apt description of our government at this time. In such an environment, it would seem imprudent to try and blow these boats out of the water ASAP.
Iran should never have got its hands on the Bradstone Challenger - who let this happen?
ReplyDeleteCan a Bradstone challenger outrun a hellfire missile?
ReplyDeleteDoes the Iranian crew of the Challenger know it is time to run?
Nice boats. Nice plans. But it is all stone paper scissors.
Helicopter bait.
ReplyDeleteWell, even Iranian speed boat can make damage to some Navy asset, the exchange will not be in Iran favor and....wait for the reprisal!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe surviving Iranian vessels will be looking for new facilities, docks, etc. Anyone ever fuel up a large gas tank by hand? Such an offensive move by Iran would be quite a gamble. They don't know how extremely Trump would respond nor for how long.