Barcos iranianos ameaçaram navios dos EUA, diz CNN

[P44]

In Iran clash, war game echo

There is a reason American military officers express grim concern over the tactics used by Iranian sailors last weekend:
a classified, $250 million war game in which small, agile speedboats swarmed a naval convoy to inflict devastating
damage on more powerful warships.

In the days since the encounter with five Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz, American officers acknowledge
that they have been studying anew the lessons from a startling simulation conducted in August 2002.
In that war game, the Blue Team navy, representing the United States, lost 16 major warships - an aircraft carrier,
cruisers, and amphibious vessels - when they were sunk to the bottom of the Persian Gulf in an attack that included
swarming tactics by enemy speedboats.

"The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack," said
Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, a retired Marine Corps officer who served in the war game as commander of a
Red Team force simulating an unnamed Persian Gulf military. "The whole thing was over in five, maybe 10 minutes."

In a new disclosure yesterday, the Navy said one of its ships fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat in the Strait of
Hormuz on Dec. 19 during one of two serious encounters that month, the Associated Press reported. The USS
Whidbey Island opened fire in response to a small Iranian boat that was rapidly approaching it.
No shots were fired in Sunday's confrontation with five Iranian boats.

If the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, proved to the public how terrorists could transform hijacked airliners into hostagefilled
cruise missiles, then the "Millennium Challenge 2002" war game with Van Riper was a warning to the armed
services as to how an adversary could apply similar, asymmetrical thinking to conflict at sea.

According to Pentagon and Navy officials, five small patrol boats belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps charged a three-ship Navy convoy Sunday, manoeuvring around and between an American destroyer, cruiser,
and frigate for a half hour. The location was where the narrow Strait of Hormuz meets the open waters of the Persian
Gulf - the same choke point chosen by Van Riper for his attack.
In the incident Sunday, the commander of one US warship trained a machine gun - which fires upward of 10 armorpiercing
slugs per second - on an Iranian boat that pulled within 200 yards of the American vessel. But the Iranians
turned away before the commander gave the order to fire.

Source : Boston.com

DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 013

[JL]

É claro que uma lancha, não pode fazer nada contra um cruzador, a questão é que as lanchas são parte de um conjunto, que envolve principalmente a questão da quantidade para saturar as defesas norte americanas.
As lanchas que apareceram no incidente, tem como utilidade principal fazer com os americanos atirem nelas, isso mesmo, enquanto essas lanchas de pequeno valor são afundadas, os iranianos esperam que as lanchas torpedeiras furtivas possam chegar mais perto para atirar.
Se uma das lanchas baratas conseguir passar então ela vira um torpedo e mesmo que seja atingida por .50 ainda será um torpedo com uma ogiva vindo contra o navio.
Isso sem falar dos mísseis e das minas. Tudo em quantidade. Essa é a tática iraniana. Por isso é interessante um confronto desigual.