“The tremendous number of nations participating in this exercise sends a clear signal that threats to global commerce will not be tolerated, said Vice Admiral John Miller, the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, the naval component of U.S. CENTCOM.
Meanwhile, IRGC Navy commander, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, said the U.S. Navy should withdraw from the Persian Gulf. The American fleet is based in Bahrain and has been operating in the Gulf for decades.
“Destroying and drowning American warships, (including) aircraft carrier, have been and will remain on our program,” Fadavi said.
File photo: U.S. Navy mine countermeasure ships, from right to left, USS Dextrous, USS Sentry, DSS Devastator and USS Pioneer; the Persian Gulf, August 2012. (U.S. Navy/AP)
10 comments:
“Destroying and drowning American warships, (including) aircraft carrier, have been and will remain on our program,” Fadavi said.
the program will be blown to small pieces quite quickly. Fadavi should settle his affairs rather than run his mouth
Well if Iran were to be attacked then by all means they have the right to retaliate against American warships (including aircraft carriers). Iranian navy & airforce are certainly capable of causing damage to American naval vessels of all types and the Americans know it.
the Iranian "air force" would cease to exist within hours and the Iranian navy would cease to exist within a couple of days.
they would cause very little damage to the US Navy and Air Force and NOTHING that could not be replaced immediately, whereas Iran can not replace aircraft at all and can not replace warships within years.
there really would be no contest.
you are quickly catching up and becoming a wise MAN ! - THANKS !
There is no reason for Iran to not tolerate such an armada of ships from different navies as long as it happens within the regulations for such exercises. Certainly Iran will monitor the situation forcefully and they will ensure the aliens are not threatening Iranian interests or entering Iranian waters, but other than that Iran is not going to bother them. Of course, the risk for a conflict increases as many parties are involved and misunderstandings can happen but as long as the other side is not trying to "check the Iranian nerves" and keep a low profile in the exercise, it will not be any big risk for such misunderstandings.
For those who proposes the IRIAF or Navy being involved, Iran's strategy for a potential conflict is far more asymmetric and multiple channels of delivering a blow to the enemy will be utilized which is of course beyond this comment, but the other side knows very well the capabilities and most importantly the determination on the Iranian side to defend national interests in those waterways.
Anon 10:17PM,
The IRIAF would indeed only have minimal to no role in performing anti-ship operation : this is what several hundred of ground-based C-802/803, camouflaged, coastal launchers are made for, this and an unspecified number of Khalij-Fars missiles that the Pentagon acknowledges amplifies Iran's probability of killing USN vessels significantly, although with reserves since the latter system is 100% Iranian and obviously cannot be compared to existing, battle-ready foreign variants, like their Ghader and Noor which are derivatives from the aforementioned Chinese systems. Iranian commanders know full well and way better than you that their air force would be no match for the USN and have never invested in any strategy granting them a frontal offensive role whatsoever, they don't even publicize the air branch this way !
Their role is to be credible against regional foes with incomparably smaller naval forces than America's, such as the GCC or to a lesser extend , Israel's, if they are ever dumb enough to close in Iranian waters in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf with their handful of modern frigates and submarines.
Oh, and FYI, in the real world you don't replace anything "immediately". Do you have an idea of the time and resources needed to build or even simply maintain a fully functional, major surface combatant of the Arleigh Burke class with no damage ? can you imagine what it would be for a badly hit sample ? do you know how long it took Israel to push back the INS Hanit into active service ? it was only hit by ONE C-802 fired from Hezbollah, that on top of that didn't have its warhead explode on impact.
The configuration of forces within the Persian Gulf forbids any such risky calculation of open confrontation by either the US or Iran, period. ISIS and the complex crises in Syria and Iraq complicate that picture further and any saber-rattling or cheap talk from Iranian or American military officials is what it is : cheap talk destined for domestic consumption for those still blind and stupid enough to give it any credit in late 2014...
in the real world you don't replace anything "immediately". Do you have an idea of the time and resources needed to build or even simply maintain a fully functional, major surface combatant of the Arleigh Burke class with no damage ? --
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the USN is so large that any damaged ships would be immediately replaced with others currently afloat.
the US will be able to devote more than one carrier group.....and US ships will withdraw from the Gulf and be beyond the effective range of the Iranian coastal defenses while Iran's coastline and military forces and equipment will all be within range of American firepower.
it will take the US three weeks to obliterate Iran's defenses and fully control all of Iranian airspace.
it's Iranian talk that is " cheap talk destined for domestic consumption for those still blind and stupid enough to give it any credit ...".
and that's not new to 2014.
AnonymousNovember 3, 2014 at 8:21 PM
While the us naval forces might be able to withdraw beyond the range of iranian antiship weapons,tho not only would this surrender control of the gulf to iranian forces but it would also add 600-800kms round trip to any us carrier aircraft operations,the biggest problem for the us in this case would be the 40,000 odd personnel stationed in the pgc/me,these would be in a very serious predicament not only would they be easy targets for iranian short and medium range missiles but the options for resupplying or evacuating them would be few and far between,in short iran has the capability to completely destroy the us military infrastructure in the pgc/me and thats without taking the nato forces into afghanistan into account who would find themselves in a very similar situation should iran target them as well,so I`m afraid that your idea that all the us need do is just pull back outside the gulf and bombard iran from afar has some serious holes in it which is probably why despite all the us threats it has decided to try negotiating rather than war and interestingly instead of the usual fanfare and chest thumping it has been very quiet about these exercises for a change,I wonder why?
I'm not looking at the 2 sides in the US and Iran situation, but at the 44 navies from ALL of those other nations that are there in the Gulf. All of them have a right to travel in international waters that do NOT have mines. All of them would not like their oil tanker ships that are going to and from the oil nations in the Gulf from hitting a mine.
Iran is not looking for any conflict with the US, but having said that it will forcefully defend its national interests in the region. Iran strongly believes US is aware of its determination but also capability and as such US respects Iranian interests and strives for creating an environment of mutual respect for both parts, which indeed the alternative Iranians are looking for as well.
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