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We do have defenses against speed boats, but the type of "swarming" attack by multiple high-speed boats described in the article is still going to be difficult to fend off. You have to realize as well that the US Navy is still primarily a "Blue-Water" force meant to fight on the open seas. We're starting to "diversify" the fleet to meet these new, post-Cold War threats with the development of platforms such as the Littoral Combat Ship.
The exercises dapperdan referenced, after a little checking, did include an all out attack on a concentration of U.S. ships in which speed boats were combined with anti-ship missile barrages from land and air.
That is in deed a threat.
Everybody handled it correctly.
I doubt the Iranians will take the risk just to take out a couple of cruisers when the response will be devastating. If they do it, it is going to be as in the context of the exercises --- an all out attack -- and as a response to an attack on their nuclear facilities.
So, my point is that this is being used again to bang the drum.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_mideast
This is a symptom of the tension and the threats from both sides. The thing that apparently sets this off from other similar incidents, where warning shots were already fired is the radio transmission and that is now suspected of being from a hoaxer by the Navy itself.
It's a dangerous situation reminiscent of the Spanish American war. The Maine blows up in Havana amidst war tension, sabotage is automatically assumed and off to war it is. Nobody today believes the Spanish had anything to do with the explosion of the Maine.
By the Way, this is going to happen in some form every time we send ships into the Gulf, or it should. I think the entrance to the straits is only 6 miles wide. The Iranians are going to document every movement of our ships in or out of the Gulf for their own intel purposes. That might include getting their video cameras as close as possible for positive identification of each ship. It's just going to be down to the distance they keep going forward..
The fact the that the crews are wearing life jackets would suggest that they are not eager to meet their virgins just yet.
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