(Washington, D.C.) With weapons manned and fully uncovered, swarms of Iranian small boats raced close to, harassed and tried to intimidate a group of U.S. Navy ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz on May 10, prompting the U.S. warships to repeatedly fire warning shots in an effort to diffuse the situation, de-escalate and force the Iranian boats to disperse.
Several U.S. Navy Patrol boats, a Navy guided-missile cruiser and several U.S. Coast Guard ships were escorting a guided missile submarine, the USS Georgia, when they were approached at provocative high-speeds by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy boats with, as a Navy report describes it, “their weapons uncovered and manned.”
The Iranian high-speed approaches, which closed within just 150 yards of the USCGC Maui traveling at speeds above 30knots, were conducted by Iranian Fast In Shore Attack Craft vessels.
“After the two IRGCN vessels failed to respond to repeated warnings and closed within 300 yards, Maui exercised lawful de-escalatory measures by firing warning shots. The two IRGCN vessels again failed to respond to warnings and closed to within 150 yards of Maui, at which time Maui fired additional warning shots,” the Navy report describes.
While the Navy report, not surprisingly, referred to the Iranian actions as “unsafe and unprofessional,” reactions among service and Pentagon leaders may have been even more pronounced. Certainly the kind of event is by no means new or unprecedented, as Iran has long been known to operate in this fashion, regularly stopping short of actually starting a lethal weapons engagement.
The narrow Strait of Hormuz is also well known as a high-tension flashpoint close to the Iranian border where large portions of the region’s commercial and military shipping traffic travels. The Strait of Hormuz is also known for being an area with high risk for mines and even some kinds of land-fired ballistic missiles.
Apart from simply engaging in harassing or provocative behavior, there does not appear to be a sensible explanation for the Iranian small boat behavior, unless of course the small boat swarming included some kind of serious attack contingency. The strategic aim of a small boat attack would of course be to simply overwhelm ship defenses and deck-mounted guns by approaching in close proximity in a dispersed fashion to “flood the zone” so to speak, and breach the protective perimeter or envelope surrounding a surface ship and it’s close-in weapons ranges with speed and volume.
