How Iran Tries to Intimidate the U.S. Navy’s Smaller Ships

[rangerrebew]

May 12, 2021

How Iran Tries to Intimidate the U.S. Navy’s Smaller Ships

Iranian provocateurs may not be familiar with substantial upgrades the Navy has made to its patrol fleet in recent years.
by Kris Osborn

Iran is once again exhibiting threatening and provocative behavior in the Strait of Hormuz. The country has used its small boats to flex its military prowess as U.S. and Coast Guard ships recently transited the area.

As many as thirteen Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast-in-shore attack craft came within just several hundred yards of a small contingent of U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard ships transiting the region, traveling at dangerous speeds greater than thirty-three knots, according to a Navy report.

What seems significant about the most recent incident on May 10 is that Iran reacted poorly to the presence of only one large U.S. Navy warship, a guided-missile cruiser, and smaller Coast Guard and Navy patrol craft. The ships were guiding or leading the well-known SSGN USS Georgia, a guided-missile cruiser, through the region.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-iran-tries-intimidate-us-navy%E2%80%99s-smaller-ships-184970

[rangerrebew]

I remember in 1976, Dr. Idi Amin Dada threatening our battle group as it neared Africa.  I also remember the intel. officer laughing as he read it.  I sometimes think these petty tyrants in the M.E. are so full of Allah they lose sight of reality - like "you could be obliterated any time we want to do it."

[Fishrrman]

Why are U.S. "Coast Guard" vessels in the Middle East to begin with?

Aren't they for defending "the coast"... of the United States...?