American Military News by Ryan Morgan April 27, 2021
Video: US warship fires warning shots at Iranian gunboats harassing it and Coast Guard ship in Persian Gulf
On Monday, armed speed boats belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) harrassed a U.S. Navy coastal patrol ship and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter operating in international waters in the north Persian Gulf.
According to a U.S. Navy statement, the Iranian speedboats, designated as fast inshore attack craft (FIACs), acted in an unsafe manner, coming within 68 yards of the boats and the Navy ship USS Firebolt (PC 10) had to fire warning shots to compel the Iranian speedboats to move away a safe distance. The Navy shared video of the nighttime interaction.
In the video, a few ships’ lights can be seen on the water before a crack can be heard and smaller light appears to streak horizontally past one of the ship’s lights and bounce off the water. It is unclear from the video if the streak of light is that of a tracer round bouncing off the water. Navy Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet told American Military News she could not immediately confirm that the video showed a tracer round being fired.
Tracer rounds are typically used to trace the trajectory of rounds being fired.
The Navy said that throughout the incident Iranian speedboats ignored warnings from Firebolt and the Coast Guard’s USCGC Baranoff (WPB 1318). The U.S. ships issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/video-us-warship-fires-warning-shots-at-iranian-gunboats-harassing-it-and-coast-guard-ship-in-persian-gulf/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzKVl04Iat8&t=17s
