Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Threatened!

Reuters relays a chilling prospect. It seems that the madman of Teheran wants us to know that two can play the came of deploying along a coast. Yes, he has authorized Admiral Horatio Hackahairball to warn us that they will deploy and patrol along the US coastline, just as we have US naval forces in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean.

We'll Be Just Outside Your Harbors

Do you think? Well, unless the Iranian Navy gets heavily vested in sailing ships, there is going to be some difficulty there with keeping the diesels running and the swabbies fed. The pictured "warship" in the piece is the Kharq which is a one-of-a-kind large replenishment vessel. That means unarmed gas station and bean dispenser.

What does the rest of the Iranian Navy look like? How many carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, etc? Here is the rundown:

Iranian Navy Order of Battle

That is going to be one long slog for those coastal patrol vessels.

Pay particular attention to the entire destroyer force, all three of them, being listed as inactive. The rest of the surface combatants are smaller than destroyers.

And given the support of light replenishment vessels that means a need for port visits by the ships. Who do you suppose is going to welcome them in this hemisphere? Not even Cuba would do it.

2 comments:

Aaron said...

Not a very potent navy, but its doesn't necesasrily need to be to cause us a lot of grief.

If you load a couple of those cargo ships up with a few missiles each with an enhanced EMP warhead, we're looking at Forstchen's One Second After scenario.

Considering what the Iranians are working on, its a real possibility.

Better sink 'em on sight just to be sure.

an Donalbane said...

Part of me would want to tell him to "bring it, scumball", but I think there's a better solution.

With all of the collapsing NCAA conferences, it would be grand entertainment if, once the mighty Iranian Navy is properly positioned off Martha's Vineyard, Virginia, and South Carolina, the sanctioning body could coordinate with USN and USAF to televise the summary scuttling of their seagoing assets.

Ought to be able to fit that into a three hour Saturday afternoon time slot...(lots of viewers, big advertising spends).