Navy Declares 100 Meter Stand Off

| May 20, 2020


Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels conducted unsafe and unprofessional actions against U.S. Military ships by crossing the ships’ bows and sterns at close range while operating in international waters of the North Persian Gulf.

11 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels harassed six U.S. warships operating in the north Persian Gulf, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

U.S. Navy Forces Central Command detailed in a news release that the IRGC vessels “repeatedly conducted dangerous and harassing approaches” of several U.S. warships while the American vessels were conducting air integration exercises with U.S. Army AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.

The 11 Iranian ships carried out an “unsafe” and “unprofessional” interaction with the following U.S. warships: the expeditionary mobile base vessel Lewis B. Puller, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Paul Hamilton, Cyclone-class of coastal patrol boat Firebolt, Cyclone-class patrol ship Sirocco, and Coast Guard ships Wrangell and Maui.

Enough of that noise.

US Navy issues new distance guidelines for vessels after close encounters with Iranian ships

Jon Gambrell

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy warned Tuesday it will take “lawful defensive measures” against vessels in the Mideast that come within 100 meters (yards) of its warships, offering specific guidelines after a recent close encounter with Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Defensive measures have typically included turning a ship away from the approaching vessel, sounding its horn, shooting off flares and ultimately firing warning shots to force the vessel away. But offering a specific distance is new for the Navy.

“Our ships are conducting routine operations in international waters wherever international law allows and do not seek conflict,” said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Bahrain-based 5th Fleet spokeswoman. “However, our commanding officers retain the right to self-defense if deemed necessary.”

While 100 meters may seem far, it’s incredibly close for large warships that have difficulty in turning quickly, like aircraft carriers.

US Warship Commanding Officers are allowed to use their own judgement in defending their ships, and Trump’s “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea” really isn’t necessary. The 100 meter standoff makes a nice line in the sea, if you will, but the CO’s will act if threatened from much farther out. Read the rest here: Navy Times

Category: Iran, Navy

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Combat Historian

As long as this is not the obamao navy where our vessels were surrendered at will and crew members held captive by Iranian IRGC for days on end…

Anybody remember THAT disgrace?

FuzeVT

Unfortunately, yes.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I remember that Combat Historian, and awhile after that, the United States Naval Institute magazine had an article on Viet Nam Swift boat Officer leadership with 4 former Swift Boat Officers telling how they went about doing things. USNI mag said that they weren’t critising on how the incident with those US Navy Patrol boats were handled, but we just wanted you to see how swift boats and Officer leadership did things back then.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Sounds like another obamas red line in the sand. I doubt any of the Navy ships will take any deadly force action against the Iranian boats because they have careers to watch out for.

JTB

100 Yards is too close….500yds…if any closer…Zip them up…!!!

26Limabeans

100 meters is handgun range but not quite
hand grenade range.

5th/77th FA

I agree, that is too close. 500 yards/meters and blow the pirate SOB out of the water. Pirate/Iranian Navy, pretty much the same, ain’t it? It is only a matter of when, not if, they actually attack one of our ships. How long would it take for one of their baby boats, loaded with explosives, take to cover 100 meters at full speed?

Huey Jock

A little more time than it would take for an up and ready CIWS to react.

5th/77th FA

What about when they swarm in with multitudes. Without giving up “trade secrets” how many R2D2s do our ships have and how many targets can they track at the same time?

timactual

It may also be too close to depress any of the ship’s guns to bear. It would be interesting to see a ship costing hundreds of millions of dollars reduced to relying on small arms and maybe a fifty cal. or two. Definitely too close for missiles.

FuzeVT

Couple of thoughts:
1. Iranian waterborne technical vs US Destroyer – I’m guess I won’t have much of an issue with the result of that

2. What are the orders given to the Iranian sailor guys? “See that big ass destroyer over there in the Navy of the President that we keep saying is unstable who just told them to blow up our ships if we bother them? I want you to go bother them.”

SFC D

Insh’allah, motherfucker!

26Limabeans

They have virgins..

Sparks

I am not in favor of this. 100 meters is too damned close. One warning of the horn and the next, and last, sound you hear will be the Phalanx system turning you into chum.

RGR 4-78

“American vessels were conducting air integration exercises with U.S. Army AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.”

Depleated uranium enemas and hellfire sledghammers,time for some iranian bassboats to prove how unsinkable they are.

E4 Mafia '83-'87

100m is definitley “mooning” range. Several times during my 2 Meds we were harrassed by a Soviet “trawler”. One time they came within full-on “mooning” range. I’d like to see their GRU masters back in Moscow pouring over the film of ship & air det personnel on the helo flight deck showing a few dozen or so hairy asses plus a few guys “hangin’ one”. Ah…those were the days.

Skippy

I have plenty of friends in the Navy
And from reading this they are basically
Telling Trump to FUK OFF
100 meters is basically what they are already
Doing why not 250-300 meters per what they are
Telling me. what a cluster fuck
Our military doesn’t even respect this president

BHWHAHAHAHA !!!!!

JTB

I think you are a Semen…

Devtun

Commanders will probably resort to SEAL or MARSOC snipers to disable the speed boats if things get way too intolerable. Some 50 BMG or .338 Norma Magnum in the engines will take all the fun out of their day.

MI Ranger

They could always drop some target buoys in the water (beach balls), and practice shooting them in the water, if the IRGC “accidently” get in the way of the firing range so be it.
Sucks when the one doing the firing is the AH-64 30mm chain gun!!

MCPO USN

The Iranian small boats are instructed to see how close they can get to identify our tactics. They know we don’t want to shoot at them and start an incident, so they keep up the harassment. If the Europeans would stop kissing their ass and also take a hard line on their shenanigans, they would stop. For now, they like to paint us as the bad guys encroaching on their “ancestral lands”. Another example of NATO being worthless.

I was an Embarked Security Team Mission Commander several years back. The Iranians were a daily pain in the ass, even buzzing my ship one day with fighter aircraft. We mainly laughed at their efforts to provoke us.