US, Iranian ships involved in incidents in Strait of Hormuz

FoxNews.com ^ | January 13, 2012 | Jennifer Griffin and Justin Fishel and the Associated Press

[Hunton Peck]

Iranian ships recently taunted two U.S. Navy vessels as part of escalating tensions in and around the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz.

The incidents in the strait, one of the world's most important oil routes, occurred last week and involved the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport dock, and the Coast Guard Cutter Adak, the military said Friday in releasing videos of the incidents.

Iranian speed boats are seen in one of the videos approaching the USS New Orleans within about 500 yards last Friday.

"The Iranian boats did not respond to whistle signal or voice queries from the New Orleans, disregarding standard maritime protocols," Central Command said in releasing the videos. In the incident involving the Adak, "communications were established with a larger Iranian ship operating in the area and the speed boats ceased their harassment."

One senior defense official told FoxNews.com that the Iranians "intended to be harassing" but it didn't go much beyond that. No shots were fired.

Iran, which recently held war games in the area, has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz if provoked, and it has warned U.S. Navy ships to steer clear.

The rising tensions coincide with increased pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which the West fears is merely a front for Iran's clandestine work on developing nuclear weapons.

Diplomats said Thursday that a senior U.N. nuclear agency team will visit Tehran on Jan. 28, with Iran saying it is ready after years of refusal to discuss allegations that it was involved in secret nuclear weapons work.

Diplomats have previously said that International Atomic Energy Agency officials were discussing such a trip with their Iranian counterparts. But before the diplomats' comments Thursday, no date...

[spokeshave]

US navy already got close enough to rescue Iranian "fishermen" twice this last week.......

Seems to me this is what's going down.....

"Call to rescue another lot of Iranian "fisherman" followed by a big bang......fishing boat, Iranian suiciders and some USA Navy all blown to smithereens.

Lets hope I'm wrong on this

[doc1019]

He wants to kill over 80K military jobs ... he has already lost the military vote.

[X-spurt]

The red metal-flake 20 foot bass boat with the Magic Carpet upholstry and 2 Chinese outboards.

[MtnClimber]

I am guessing that the military response is heavily restrained by control freak liberal approvals. I would not want my life to be there, on the line, and waiting for approval to shoot back at the iranian nut jobs shooting at me.

[Breto]

If those are ships I would hate to see their small attack craft. They must be at least 6 or 7 inches long.

[af_vet_rr]

I guess we allow provocative runs on our ships until 400 yards out?

Depends on the situation. I'm pretty sure that if those on board the US ships felt threatened, that the Iranians would have been greeting allah in short order.

It all depends on the rules of engagement though.

Hell, we've had Soviet ships ram US Navy ships during the Cold War.

But I doubt that the Iranians would be allowed to get too close. Obama may want to play election year politics and have loose rules of engagement.

[353FMG]

You still assume that he is on our side?

[Common Sense 101]

Iranian ships recently taunted two U.S. Navy vessels as part of escalating tensions in and around the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz.

And as they quickly sped away they could be heard to say, “Now go away... or we shall return to taunt you a second time”.

[RetiredTexasVet]

The best defense is an offense that wipes the stupid bastar!s out before they do something stupid that puts you on defense.

[goat granny]

Hi doc, if you have been around as long as I have, democrats alway decimate the military and the republicans have to rebuild it...I had 2 son’s in the military during the last 1/2 of Carter and the first 1/2 of Reagan...My son in the air force said that any time they couldn’t get 1/2 of our planes in the air...the other 1/2 were used for parts...Reagan built it, Clinton did all his cutting in the military budget, Bush had to build it up again....democrats always do it. I am never surprised when they do it...

[Hunton Peck]

It would be just like the French to offer tactical taunting training to the Iranian navy...

[neodad]

My old ship knew how to handle this situation!

[Chode]

HOZE-EM!!!

[musicman]

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[GAB-1955]

They’d have to board the ships, and you don’t want to do that to Coast Guardsman who are all skilled in small arms and carry handcuffs.

[rlmorel]

[Dogbert41]

"I just hope the jerk in the white house has some balls when it comes to our military...."

[az_gila]

Let’s hope they have the latest Phalanx Block 1B units with surface mode capability...:^)

http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/phalanx/

[Dan(9698)]

They are not rags, they are sheets.

[ThunderSleeps]

Nah, one DDG with a SPY-1D radar. Jack it up to max power, sweep the beam across the speedboats...end of problem. At that range, ain’t none of them going home.