Posted on 12/29/2011 7:33:48 AM PST by blam
US Sends Aircraft Carrier Into The Strait Of Hormuz, As Iran Beats Its Chest
Robert Johnson
Dec. 29, 2011, 7:56 AM
USS John C. Stennis
Iran has announced it located a U.S. aircraft carrier moving into the Strait of Hormuz during Iranian wargame exercises.
The AFP reports Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, spokesman for the exercises, says the carrier was spotted by an Iranian reconnaissance plane that took photos and video.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Fifth Fleet confirmed the carrier is the USS John C. Stennis, a nearly 1,100 foot nuclear powered craft with unlimited range and 3 million gallons of onboard fuel for its aircraft.
USS Mobile Bay
In addition to its planes and the ships that sail in the group, the Stennis is armed with NATO RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and Rolling Air Missile (RAM) surface-to-air missile systems, the Phalanx Close-in Weapons System for cruise missile defense, and the AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System.
U.S. officials said Wednesday that the Stennis and the guided missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay slipped into the strait Tuesday after a stop at Dubai's Jebel Ali port.
The USS Mobile bay is a 570 foot Ticonderoga class cruiser that carries the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, two Seahawk LAMPS multi-purpose helicopters, and is used for anti-submarine warfare, anti-air, and anti-surface warfare.
The Associated Press reports Iran is playing up the sighting of the carrier and boasting of the strength of its navy in the region.
Iranian naval chief Adm. Habibollah Sayyari says Iran has "control over the moves by foreign forces" and that the "foreign fleet will be warned by Iranian forces if it enters the area of the drill."
Iranian state TV showed the supposed video but details of the carrier couldn't be made
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
A spinless wimp, or a thoughtful conservative?
It depends.
I'd rather see 75,000,000 dead and burned beyond recognition, mooselimb persians than one US city destroyed by a nuke that we allowed to be manufactured and used when we have the ability stop it.
In your view is that order an act of a spineless wimp or a thoughtful conservative?
All the more reason for one or more to be in the neighborhood. Iran has made its nuclear ambitions obvious; an unprovoked attack on a US carrier group that results in Tehran disappearing under a mushroom cloud would be an excellent lesson for the Muslim world.
I guess these guys might be the first to find out if they have nukes.
I agree. This is not a good idea.
To the UN they could claim it was all an Israeli zionist plot to attack a US carrier and start a war, and demand an investigation, most of the 3rd world would believe this. Also many US democrats. And Ron Paul.
I believe the Iranian “moderates” have played this card before, such as over Pan Am 103 and maybe others
One really interesting thing about the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s is that tankers were getting shot up, bombed, and hit by missiles constantly, and the price of oil was collapsing pretty much the whole time.
Another interesting thing is that it revealed it’s next to impossible to sink a supertanker; they’re just so damn big, and crude isn’t THAT flammable.
69-76?
hmmm. I guess I do not see this as GHW Bush time
The Iranians have Kilos, which are not AIP.
Thanks for the info.
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Hopefully it would be a troubling decision for our President.
Refresh my memory. Did we have predator drones during the Gulf War?
You don’t have to sink a supertanker
You just have to create conditions that make Gulf shipping uninsurable (or prohibitively expensive) by Lloyds
Then the commercial interests and their bankers demand military intervention. and off we go
escorts redux
Well 49 is a cheerful thought.
Which Gulf War?
In GWI we were using Pioneer UAVs off the Missouri and Wisconsin. They were the ones that Iraqi soldiers famously surrendered to.
I used to work with a Marine who was with one of the forward observer parties when they went into Kuwait; said they did take a bit of Iraqi artillery fire, but was able to call in some 16” on their batteries with the Pioneer.
The firing stopped.
Iran is beating its chest? What, did they turn vegetarian and give up meat?
Yes, we had drones during Desert Storm. Not armed Predators, but surveillance drones.
CVN 69, etc
Those are not years. Those are naval designations of the ships.
C means carrier, V means fixed wing, N means nuclear. Each on is uniquely numbered.
Iran has numerous very quiet DE subs. Having a carrier in that little space is asking for disaster.
That and shore missile batteries would zero in on a carrier.
Station a carrier 100+ miles out in the Indian Ocean, land based assets in Kuwait, Southern Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan to cover the Northern Gulf.
Also, I believe the Persian Gulf is too shallow for Nuke subs.
While they can submerge, they can’t deep dive for evasive action..
Sure. And the Japs had Zeros before 1941, and they didn’t sink the Prince of Wales before then.
Not sure what it proves that our carriers have transited the Hormuz for years.
The British dreadnaughts transited the Indian Ocean and Pacific for decades, before 1941, that didn’t prove they were invincible to air attack.
Until they were sunk. My point is, sometimes these paradigm shifts in the use of sea power don’t become evident until ships are aflame and sinking.
Until then, they are thought invincible.
Good points about USN ships defending themselves. Not sure if that translates into defending tankers, though, since the tankers won’t even leave port after a state of war exists.
So it’s not enough that our USN ships can transit the straits: they must eliminate even the threat of Iranian ASCMs. That’s a much harder proposition. In my scenario, all the Iranians have to do is manage to launch a few ASCMs every few days, to keep the tankers from sailing. Hitting targets would only be a bonus.
In any case, 2012 is shaping up to be an “interesting” year.
From 1980 to about 1985 our production climbed while our consumption declined.
We did a lot to affect the world pricing at that time.
It got so bad for oil producers on the west coast, that in July 1986 the average price for Alaskan North Slope Oil delivered down in Washington and California was about $3.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=F005071__3&f=M
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