Posted on 04/19/2010 4:42:17 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Military experts say the Fifth Fleet has come a long way since Iranian gunboats crippled it within hours in a notorious war game five years ago.
In fact, says John Pike, president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Global Security Web site, the Navy was well on its way to solving the challenge of fending off the swarming swift boats before the war game began.
In that test, an enemy "red team" headed by retired Martine Corps Gen. Paul Van Riper deployed the gun boats and propeller-driven suicide planes to paralyze the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.
It took Riper less than two hours to knock it out of commission.
Key to the shocking result was Van Riper's strategy of neutralizing the American advantage in big guns and cruise missiles by getting in close before hostilities began.
But the Navy now has the MK 182, “the mother of all shotgun shells,” fired by 5-inch guns deployed on every major ship in the fleet, says Pike.
“To the extent there was a material deficiency” at the time of the 2005 war game, Pike said in an interview, “this took care of it.” The weapon had been under development since 2002, he said.
“The doctrinal problem of when you pull the trigger” still exists, he added.
Over the weekend the New York Times reported that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had warned the White House in a memo that the U.S. did not have sufficient military plans in place to deal with Iran should diplomacy and sanctions fail to blunt its nuclear ambitions.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
LOL!
If they are showning off the MK 182, there is a good chance there is something a lot nastier out there, they’re not talking about!
You are the first person I have heard this from.
Soon as I read the article I said the same thing to my Army Vet friend.
Great minds I guess.
Any move like that by Obama would have the same results as his to Mass in support of Coakley!
I wrote the same scenario and results here at FR about a year ago when we were discussing Iranian threats to an American fleet, whether in attack mode or not.
I wrote that the hundred/several hundred small Iranian PT-sized boats could overwhelm our missile-defense systems on the ships by sheer numbers and it only takes a single missile to knock out our smaller protective ships (remember the Elat, the Israeli small destroyer/frigate sunk by an Egyptian/Russian missile?)
The USS Cole was knocked out by a boat full of explosives. One of our destroyers took serious casualties from a French-made, Iraq-fired Exocet anti-ship missile. And something sunk the So. Korean boat a few weeks ago.
Add into the mix a launching of scores or hundreds of the Chinese made Silkworm missile with advanced electronics.
Then throw in some suicide fighter-bombers armed with anti-ship missiles.
Our fleet would have been crippled if not destroyed years ago, by the Iranians. The new 5” shell is a better defensive weapon by you will have to fire a lot of them in a short period of time to stop oncoming boats/planes.
However, if you enlarge this type of shell to a rocket’s warhead, and aim it out into space, you should be able to bring down any enemy missile, ICBM or even a SCUD, just by being able to throw thousands of steel pellets at it in a good shotgun spread.
The most effective US artillery shell in Vietnam in destroying a VC/NVA massed frontal attack was the 105mm sheel with thousands of steel flechets in them. Somewhat akin to shooting several thousand mini-pitchforks into an enemy concentration of ground troops.
Any Nam guys familiar with which battled they were used in, chime in her. I’m thinking of Khe Sanh, Con Thien and other firebases in I Corps.
Make that three of us. Sometime between September and October in 2012.All his past indescretions will be forgiven.
He will be a hero to the Israel supporters, strong military and defense supporters and the Jews will be back on the plantation. Kinda tough on Iran but a guy’s gotta do what a guy has to do. obama waltzs to a second term. Now he will complete his agenda.
When figuring obama, convental thinking does not work. You have to think outside the box. The more absurd the better, the more unrational or unlikely the better. The more evil the better.
obama is pure unadultrated evil.
Looks like the “grape shot” that was used at Gettysburg, except these grapes are more like baseballs.
bump
How does it work out if one or more of the boats is carrying whatever kind of nuke Iran is capable of producing?
““The doctrinal problem of when you pull the trigger” still exists, he added.”
Early and often.
Gun porn in post #9.
That’s one heckuva shot shell. Itty-bitty shot, though. Would be hell on people and Zodiacs, I suppose.
>>Any Nam guys familiar with which battles they [105mm flechette rounds] were used in, chime in here. I’m thinking of Khe Sanh, Con Thien and other firebases in I Corps.
Archy would probably know that, and I see he has been posting lately.
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