What Do We Make Of Iranian Speed Boats Harassing U S Ships?

I think the Iranians are playing with fire...

If not a Tonkin event already.

....

Were they the speedboats like on Miami Vice?

An important part of their deterrence capability is the ability to close the Straits by sinking some ships in it.

They need to know our protocols for dealing with suicide boats.

I have no idea if they threatened us or not, by they have ample reason to buzz our ships with small craft to see what happens... what rardars do wo turn on, what misssles pop-up, how we evade, whether we evade. Deducing level of local command. Makes sense to me.

Remember when the pentagon war-gamed Iraq and lost because the B-team filled all the fishing boats with explosives and Kamikazed the US ships?

(That was a semi-scandal because they re-did the exercise with new rules where you couldn't do that.)

And for that I hope everyone involved rots in hell.

Must have a brave American willing to admit that it is bogus.

the audio were from the Iranian boats.

It's REEEEEELY fishy.

do you think we'd harass them?

I think we would.

But I don't what the protocol is when one vessel moves on another vessel in a threatening matter...

...but still outside the international boundary wouldn't elicit a similar response from the U.S. It's one thing to just "be" in international waters, and quite another to be there with a large offensive military force. If American warships can project force from their location in "international waters" into Iranian territory you can bet the Iranians will likely react just like Americans would in a similar situation.

Navigation
Ships moving through the Strait follow a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), which separates inbound from outbound traffic to reduce the risk of collision. The traffic lane is six miles wide, including two two-mile-wide traffic lanes, one inbound and one outbound, separated by a two-mile wide separation median. To traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran or Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz


And here:
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part3.htm

Note: Article 42 Laws and regulations of States bordering straits relating to transit passage

Which article clearly indicates that Iran, through whose territory the international transit passages are established, retains the right to regulate traffic through the transit passage, for example by acting to identify all ships that are entering the passage.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2649767&mesg_id=2650149

i believe they were trying to avoid an accidental incursion..

the voice seemed contrived.. later the Iranian transmissions were played, it was all business, it sounds like customs, that copy of the transmission had no threat,

the best credit i can give for the threat is that it was some sailor trying to be funny.. the worst scenario is Chaney trying to start WW3 for W43

What do I make of people who after 7 years still buy this horse shit? Well, that's probably best left unsaid.

As I've said on DU before, my ex was in the Navy for 22 years. Spent many a cruise in the Persian gulf. This very same thing happened to them more than once or twice.

The Iranians really have no Navy, they have these little speedboats and patrol boats. They go out (usually at night) cruising around the giant US ships, just seeing what they can see. They hang out just long enough until they see activity aboard, any reaction to their presence, and then they beat feet out of there.

Just for perspective, I have a very dear friend who was also in the Navy for a lot of years, but was air crew. They used to do anti-submarine surveillance, mostly off the east coast of the US. He basically said the same thing about Soviet submarines. They would cruise into our waters all the time, just to find out our reaction. They would basically spy on us, spying on them. When they realized they had been spotted, they would head for the hills.

Its all just a part of the game, in other words.

When I heard this story, my first thought was, "Yeah, so? Why is this a news story now?"

Then, of course, I realized the obvious answer to my question.

-chef-

(1) Iran has no reason to start shit with the US. Russia and China are backing it and the US gov't itself has said it isn't making nukes.

(2) Either this was a bunch of Iranian swabs playing cowboy without orders or the USN is ginning up a faux BFD, on its own or on orders. I suspect on orders; yet another "don't look here, look there".

there`s always at least show off that thinks they are really cool..

the usa does`t own the straits