Posted on 01/11/2008 5:55:17 AM PST by RDTF
The Pentagon said yesterday that the radio threat to bomb U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf last weekend may not have come from the five Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats that approached them -- and may not even have been intended against U.S. targets.
The communication Sunday was made on radio channel 16, a common marine frequency used by ships and others in the region. "It could have been a threat aimed at some other nation or a myriad of other things," said Rear Adm. Frank Thorp IV, a spokesman for the Navy.
In the radio message recorded by the Navy, a heavily accented voice said, "I am coming to you. You will explode after a few minutes." But Farsi speakers and Iranians told The Washington Post that the accent did not sound Iranian.
In part because of the threatening language, the United States has elevated the encounter into an international incident. Twice this week, President Bush criticized Iran's behavior as provocative and warned of "serious consequences" if it happens again. He is due to head today to the Gulf area, where containing Iran is expected to be a major theme of his talks in five oil-rich sheikdoms.
Pentagon officials insist that they never claimed Iran made the threat. "No one in the military has said that the transmission emanated from those boats. But when they hear it simultaneously to the behavior of those boats, it only adds to the tension," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. "If this verbal threat emanated from something or someone unrelated to the five boats, it would not lessen the threat from those boats."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
""The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from takeoff at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down."
No he’s not.
"Gentlemen don't read each other's mail."
Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State, 1929.
It “could” have been a stray transmission from a Martian UFO, broadcasting on marine VHF 16, the international marine hailing freq.
Occam’s Razor says it was the Iranian speedboats who were buzzing our ships.
And putting something in quotes, without attribution, makes something a fact? (Just kidding. I stand corrected.)
It was a joke. ;-)
Who woulda thunk it?
Enlarge your strategic picture. On the adjacent Islands are dozens of anti ship cruise missile launch sites.
The small boats provoke the US ships to fire on them.
I order to retaliate to this act of war, the Iranians immediatel launch a couple of dozen Silk worms and other cruise missiles. Some are bound to get through.
Remaining small craft then attack, killing anyone left in the water.
Those Iranian small boats are carrion boats in the tradition of Barbary pirates.
Solution:
We take the islands and turn them into a DMZ.
Navy Seals ! On deck!
I can’t believe they didn’t use something to track them.
I think we should have blown them out of the water no matter who was on the radio. Did we already forget what happened to the USS Cole?
Well, it’s not like the ships themselves could not tell where the transmission are coming from...
Description: AN/SRS-1 Combat DF Block 0 is a signal acquisition and direction-finding system providing warship commanders with near-real-time indications and warning, situational awareness, and cueing information for targeting. Combat DF greatly improves on existing signals intelligence technology by providing greater flexibility against a wider range of threat signals and increased reliability at lower cost through use of COTS workstations. The Block 1 (AN/SRS-1A) system incorporates the Automated Digital Acquisition Subsystem (ADAS) upgrade enabling exploitation of unconventional and low-probability-of-intercept (LPI) signals.
Program Status: Block 1 is now in Full-Rate Production and is being installed during new-ship construction on Wasp (LHD-1) and Flight II and Flight IIA (DDG 72-95)-class ships. Block 0 systems are also being upgraded with ADAS as back-fits on in-service LHD-1s and DDG-51s originally outfitted with SRS-1. The Block 1 system will eventually outfit seven LHDs, 24 DDG-51 Flight IIs, and four shore sites. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2000, Combat DF has been superseded by the Cooperative Outboard Baseline Logistics Update (COBLU ) Phase 1 system during construction of DDG-96 and follow-on Aegis destroyers and on LHD-8 (if fully funded and built).
Developer/Manufacturer: Sanders, Nashua, New Hampshire.
DOn’t know if they had any of these on hand...
Description: The SSQ-120(V) Transportable-Radio Direction Finder (T-RDF) provides a low-cost Medium/High/Very High/Ultra High Frequency (MF/HF/VHF/UHF) Direction Finding (DF) capability to selected U.S. Navy ships. The receiving and processing equipment is located in a single below-decks equipment rack located in the Ship Signals Exploitation System (SSES) space. A ship receives a permanent “pre-groom” which consists of antennas, cables, and equipment rack. When needed, an equipment suite is carried onboard and installed in the equipment rack. The system can be operated independently in a “stand-alone” mode, or it can be remotely operated via software resident on a SSEE or ACCES system.
Program Status: At the end of Fiscal Year 2001, 19 T-RDF equipment suites have been fielded for use in both Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.
Developer/Manufacturer: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas.
Oh, and this -
Old Crows Rule (whoo-hoo)
Cool stuff, not my area of expertise!
Thx for the post.
I have to say, that it sounded VERY robotic.
Sur ‘nuf. While not a SLQ-32, the RDF stuff does have its uses.
But, it has to be used.
The voice sounded to me like the giant in the movie the princess bride, where he and his friends are storming the castle.
“I am coming for youuuuuuuu! I am the Dread Pirate Robert! You will all dieeeeeeeee!”
Our CO’s standing orders while we were there was a 2000 yard exclusion zone, day or night...
Of course that was back in the heyday of the 80’s, when it wasn’t cool to be in the Persian Gulf...
Ask someone back then and they’d say...
“Persian Gulf??? Where’s that??”
No, but Ron Paul compared it to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Perhaps they intended to board the ships and take prisoners. American military personnel tend to refuse such requests.
What? Now they are taking it back? I wish they would get their story straight before announcing it to the world. Now all the kooks (democrats & MSM) have even more ammo to avoid taking on the Iranian threat.....
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