Posted on 10/08/2016 6:30:45 AM PDT by C19fan
As we noted previously, details surrounding the attack on the UAE-operated logistics ship Swift remain very fuzzy. Most news outlets reported the ship was sunk. Contrary to those reports, it appears the shipor what was left of itwas being towed to Eritrea for examination. It looks as if it has arrived there, and the pictures are not pretty.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
The General Belgrano was not available for comment.
Who was operating ship? Contract or otherwise, was this ship US-supported and staffed? If so, where was the Navy?
“There was a time before our time,
It will not come again,
When the best ships still were wooden ships
But the men were iron men.”
Okay, just waking up and now read the linked article in detail instead of skimming. Yes, do we want aluminum ships? Seems it took a beating. Was this some 3-world amateur attack or something more serious. I’ve always suspected these light ships are useless if someone ever shoots at them. I’ve been aboard the littoral ships and after serving on the Coral Sea (CV-43), would not want to be on a ship so lightly built and virtually unarmored.
Who built this hunk-o-junk?
Good question.
“The General Belgrano was not available for comment.”
******************************************************
Perfectly delivered in the new “deadpan” font. Thank you so much for my morning smile.
General Belgrano, as I recall, was an ALL STEEL WW2 era US navy light cruiser sold to Argentina by the US. Sunk with one torpedo by a British sub during the Falklands war with nearly total loss of life.
How many sheep-dipped US Navy personnel aka “contractors” were killed in this attack?
Don’t make me laugh by suggesting Americans were not running this ship.
Was wonder’in if that attack was real or not.
Now we know.
Poor crew.
On another note, that’s quite a publication you cite.
Look at this development for surgical strikes:
Hopeful tinfoil-wear will mitigate the danger when they trace FReeper’s ip home addresses /s
Imagine if Hillary gets in and commands this weaponry?
An epidemic of conservative’s coming down with spontaneous human combution...
Anyone survived on the bridge?
Incat in Australia, and it’s one of many -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incat
The sister ship HSV-X1 is presently a ferry operating from Liverpool to the Isle of Man.
This is not a US Navy ship.
It was built and owned by an Australian shipbuilder and leased by the US Navy for a number of years for experiments and testing. When the lease was up, it was returned to its Australian owners, refurbished, and sold/leased to a United Arab Emirates company.
Its international crew indicates it is being used as a conventional merchant ship:
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/crew-members-of-uae-ship-attacked-by-houthis-tell-of-terrifying-raid
2. All modern warships have an aluminum superstructure and would take similar damage if hit above the main deck.
The General Belgrano was the old USS Phoenix. Due to Argentine sloth she was only capable of ten knots and had no destroyer escort. BUT! Had she made it to the islands her automatic six inch guns would have wreaked havoc on the Brits.
Media reports say no crew were injured in the attack.
Yep. A 3 am attack may have helped avoid casualties.
The crew of 24 seems typical for a merchant ship: Polish first officer and a variety of other nationalities, including Ukrainian and Indian. Word would have leaked very fast if there had been deaths and serious injuries.
It was not a warship, so maybe not armored at all, but original configuration was with 4 - .50 cal machine guns.
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