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Subscribe to RSSAn Iranian patrol boat approached a U.S. aircraft carrier, backing down within two miles from the USS Abraham Lincoln. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports from the USS Abraham Lincoln.
ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN – A U.S. aircraft carrier sailing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz had a close encounter with an Iranian vessel Tuesday.
The Iranian navy patrol boat came within two miles of the USS Abraham Lincoln, part of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, as it sailed through the strait with the destroyer Cape St. George and a guided missile cruiser.
The Iranian military came out for a look at the ships, first sending a reconnaissance flight and then sending the Iranian patrol boat.
The commander of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Capt. John Alexander, said such close encounters “could eventually lead to a fatal miscalculation.”
“They have the ability to take a shot at me at some point, and I worry about it,” Alexander told NBC News.
Because of strong U.S. sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, Iran has threatened to shut down the strait and attack U.S. warships. Oil tankers carry a fifth of the world's oil supply through the strait, only about 30 miles across at its narrowest point.
Iran has also amassed Revolutionary Guard fast boats, submarines and, along the shoreline, anti-ship cruise missiles.
Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the 5th Fleet, said, “We’re ready today. This is the world we live in.”
Fox said Sunday that Iran had built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy could prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet always has at least one supercarrier at sea accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers.
NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Reuters contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
I hope and pray,
every day, that Tehran
becomes the next Chernobyl
With Iran gone,
the world can move on,
and half the world's problems
will be over.
dante2308
We have less than 1500 nuclear weapons.. aren't you paying attention to these disbarment treaties?
But on a war footing we could mass produce them a vast scale so that really doesn't mean anything. We could drop 1500 Nuclear weapons on Iran and within a few weeks have another 1500 ready to go. Of course we would only a couple of Nukes to deal a crippling blow. I don't advocate Nuclear war but the fact is if it comes to it our current arsenal and our ability to produce more is simply overwhelming compared to any other nation save for possibly China. But here is the thing with China. They want to be a financial powerhouse. Their military is growing but they are still probably two decades or more behind us and they know they can accomplish more through their banks and lending and buy out of of our credit than they can with their military. Their combined military might is enough to make war in China a daunting prospect but they just don't have the ability to shift their troops in a large enough scale to impact any other theater of war, they have very few troop transport ships, large air craft for moving equipment and no foreign military bases to act as support. WE tend to think of the Chinese military against the US in terms of how they responded and how they fought in Korea but there the Chinese could simply walk across their border and sen supplies to the North Koreans by horse drawn wagon.
Candle - We have 5,113 active warheads, and another 4,500 in storage waiting to be disassembled. Don't know where the dope got those figures.
Latest count is 1,950 active. Obama wants to take that down to 200-300.
Here it comes America... Our next war... Just a question of when it starts...
Israel will do the work that we don't have the guts to do.
Take a long look at Hiroshima in 1945! This is the little sister of destruction compared to what we have now."...a couple of nukes could cause a crippling blow..." a couple of nukes could destroy half the world!
We soon forget and draw nukes like a toy gun. These are serious threats from Iran who has no idea of what they have or what sort of devistation will result.
...and they are stupidly fanatical to push the button.
Zionist Israel is so eager to go for war with Iran, the only problem they have is how to involve US so our boys can do the job.
Let's allow Iran have nukes like Israel has one and let's create balance of power at this region, no need for war. We have other problems at home.
And the dance continues. This is too much fun! How come I wasn't invited?
Head down to your local recruiter. I'm sure they'd be happy to take you!
Skup, my delusional ego mania would disqualify me from service
Kevin,
You are obviously qualified to be an officer.
Sorry but I cannot agree with sending carriers back and forth through the Straits of Hormuz. Too valuable and too easy to hit when you can get so close. Their defense is in layers, this situation allows an enemy to penetrate all but the last layer with no cost. (We all know what Homer would say...and I hope he's not CNO.)
They should operate within an entire battle group when forward deployed, not in a 2 mile channel so near an enemy with one destroyer and one cruiser and in a place too shallow for our fast attack boats.
Do you hear me USN? Do we need to lose a 1,000+ sailors and a $5 Billion dollar asset to a $100K missile for you guys to wake up?
CitizenNine - a 2 mile channel?? The straits are 34 miles wide at its narrowest point.
Its only a 2 mile channel. Not deep enough for a Carrier elsewhere. Even if it was 34 miles is way too close.
Citizen, our Naval fleet is fine and very safe in this area. We are allowing Iran's small ships to get close and play games and Iran knows this. This is just a game and good practice for both our and Iran's navy. Just the constant sonic booms of our F-15s would drive Iran's Naval personell away via no sleep
Sorry but you are incorrect Kevin.
Read my first note again. Its Homer Simpson dumb. Carriers normally operate with a ring of Frigates at 200+ miles, Destroyers at 100+ and Cruisers at 50+ with submarines underneath and CAPs above.
There is a good reason for that and this flies in the face of years of experience. It smells of a reelection ploy to me.
you makes it sound as if its shallow.
...but then you might think 400 ft is "shallow"
Most of the Straits is territorial waters. Only the shipping channel is considered an International Strait allowing transit.
The average depth of the entire Persian Gulf is only 36 meters. Yes there are some areas of the wider Gulf where it is 300 ft deep but not through the Straits of Hormuz.
People just love to throw in their two cents without a clue about the subject.
CitizenNine - The only person here without a clue is you! The 2 mile channel you are referring to is the shipping lane designed to lower the risk of collision. BTW, It's 2 miles in each direction with a 2 mile strip in between. There is plenty of room to maneuver and the carrier will be escorted by several Aegis ships more than capable of shooting down any land based missiles. As for your nonsense claim about a ring of frigates at 200 miles, destroyers at 100+ miles and cruisers at 50??? You've been reading to much fiction.
Iran's only chance of even landing a blow would be limited to throwing a sucker punch, i.e. approaching close enough to get off a shot with a limited response time, or by the use of mines.
They have thousands of missiles. They can hit the Straits from land based missile bases and they have thousands (yes thousands) of those little attack boats.
Citizen, what is fascinating is that they could but won't. Even though we and many other of our UN cohorts have backed them into an economic corner. Iran is (thank God) not stupid and they do have impulse control. Iran knows that their gain can only be actuated via diplomatic war, not military war.
IMHO a prediction, cvn-65 the carrier enterprise has reached its service date and is due for decomissioning, i feel its last deployment will be to the gulf of hormuz as bait for iran to attack, giving the US full excuse to make all out retaliatory strikes. failing this a false flag operation, similar to 'the gulf of tonkin incident' and many others we have done. this will be conducted by ourselves or israel, blaming iran for the attack. whether enterprise survives or not is irrelevant
Your going to need more aluminum foil that conspiracy theory.
lilbear68,
Are you suggesting we'd deliberately kill our own sailors to start a war? Otherwise its not a 'false flag' but simply Iranian aggression and stupidity.
im suggesting that this country frequently does false flag operations and israel is a contributor occasionally to strikes on our ships, read history, the deaths and injury incurred at the time we give lip service to, as a vietnam vet i do remember the gulf of tonkin incident and the bay of pigs, it doesnt mean i approve or agree with this as i said before IMHO this is what will happen this time. we need an excuse that is acceptable to the world and a strike on the Big E would be an acceptable loss
skup, the Big E is otw or already there in the gulf ostensibly to reinforce the carl vinson group
lilbear68 - You are residing in another galaxy if you think the US is going to strike it's own ships to start a war.
skup
you are living in another galaxy if you think this hasnt happened in the past and we use our ships as bait also, look up the pueblo and the maya guez, spelling for the maya is prolly wrong
lilbear68, yes, we and Israel (only with our OK) have done this before. However, at this current time our population will NEVER tollerate a military war with Iran (period end of story). What is most fascinating now in 2012 is that the entire World is connected with everyone via the internet and we can discuss and debate these matters non-violently
lilbear68 - Who did the shooting?
skup, look em up yourself its part of history
kevin i suggest you look up the statement goebbles made about the citizenry not wanting to go to war, in part he said that all that was needed to get the population behind a war was to say they were being attacked and to call the pacifists cowards and traitors. sounds a bit like bush's statement 'if your not with us your against us' and then the patriot act steamrolling the constitution and the final nail in the coffin was the ndaa which eliminates the 4 ammendment. kinda funny congress aint passed a budget in 3 years and cant get it together for this phoney debt ceiling but they passed the ndaa literally over night, and obamacare, remember 'we have to pass it then we can read it'??
lilbear68 - Officially the Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans in 1968. Who would be the one shooting at the Enterprise? The Enterprise, by the way, isn't in the Gulf.
skup, well according to the mission status the Big E returned to norfolk around july for a refit and now is either otw or already there and its group is tasked as back up for the vinson and group she isnt in the gulf cuz she is or should be at the straight of homuz. i may be wrong but 1 of our carriers just transited the straight the other day
We placed sanctions on Japan, they attacked Pearl Harbor, we fought back. Who was most provocative? We need diplomacy and a strong sense of our own business, not sanctions and a heavy hand.
You just don't get it. The idea of sanctions is to avoid war not cause one. War is inevitable once Iran has nukes. Its probably inevitable before they get nukes because Israel does not have a 6,000 mile buffer zone like the US.
They (Supreme Leader of Iran Khamenei) just this weekend in front of the world said they will 'cut out the cancer of the Zionists.' If your near neighbors said that and they were about to get nukes would you wait? Once Israel attacks Iran, (or vice versa), Iran has said (last week) they will attack all 40 US bases in their range.
Meanwhile, Iran attacked our embassy, held our people hostage, captured two US hikers who did nothing wrong and held them for years in prison. Iran mined the Gulf in the 80's and hit a US warship. They fired on our ships and we sank one of theirs. They have (Khamenei admitted it) started and supported wars with Israel before using their proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Hezbollah (Iran) has killed our servicemen at least three times, probably more.
Just how far do you intend to run in the hopes that showing our backs will make the fanatics less crazy?
Citizen, it is time for you to retire from the US senate.
Remember "Who ALWAYS WINS?"
"Weapons manufacturers, especially in the USA and all of our closest allies too.
The "business of war" has been around since the beginning of time, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the Roman Empire and every powerful civilization ever since.
While so many "mistakenly believe" the USA "somehow NEEDS Middle Eastern Oil" very few realize how LITTLE the USA actually imports from "all Middle Eastern countries combined?" The amount averages around 11% to 13% of all our imported Oil.
American "demand" is at an "all time low". Between high unemployment and higher gas prices, Americans have dramatically reduced our demand; we're driving conservatively and become much better at conserving gas, which means there is so much of a glut that American refineries are actually "cutting back on production?"
Ironically, in spite of being more responsible, Americans still get forced to "bend over" for higher gas prices.
BUT... How about those WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS?
Yes sir, I'm sure all the "weapons factories" are just rocking and rolling along, cranking out lots of boats, planes, tanks, ships, bombs, missiles and every thing else that goes along with the war machine.
A big part of me doesn't mind, as long as "American workers" are the ones getting paid.
By at least the same standard, while our U.S. Military is "protecting so many foreign workers in so many foreign countries" it is about damn time that we "equally protect American Petroleum & Natural Gas workers" too?
Why "must it always be the USA" protecting the straight of Hormuz, when so many other countries get so much of their Oil through that Straight?
How do we constantly pee away Trillions around the world, while our own Southern border with Mexico is such a disaster? Over 60,000 soldiers in Germany and over 35,000 in South Korea?
It's about damn time we take most of those, move them here and protect OUR border.
Remember how their President said he wants to wipe Isreal off the face of the Map, Maybe he wants the US to wipe them(Iran) of the face of the Map.
BG-541463 It was the Israeli interpretation of the speech to US press, the Iranian president didn't say any of that, why don't you do some research, but you probably are not interested in the truth.
What is wrong with some of you people? How exactly is Iran provoking a war when it is the US that parked the fifth fleet on their doorstep?
John, Iran has been threatening and attacking the international community for decades! PLEASE...
Mike, are you forgetting that we were in unjust war and killed many Innocent men, women and children?
I have seen estimates of over million people being killed, who will speak for all the dead children and ruined lives? I am sure that Dick Chaney and Halliburton reps won't.
Buckle up Americans cause this is just the begining. If you dont think Iran, Russia, and China wont partner up for war against us because of their differnces in relion etc. think again. Germany, Japan and Italy teamed up in WW2 and look how different they were. History has a tendancy to repeat itself in many ways. May God help us all.
If beinf verbose is a sign of knowledge than some of you border on brilliance. Unfortunately you're also the same people with the right to vote and work hard every election to prove how stupid you really are. Keep electing the incumbents and continue your "brilliant" record.
The same people who pushed for war with Iraq are alive and well doing the same thing, pushing for war with Iran. What we need is to teach Israel to get along with its neighbors, (saying: "be good to your neighbor, he knows where you live" comes to mind) instead of supplying more and more arms. Stop fighting their wars. It is reasonable to assume that Iran is worrying about its safety knowing that Israel owns nuclear weapons. It is also possible that they need nuclear power plants. Even if they would develop nuclear weapons, they are smart enough to know not to use them. Only desperate country is capable of using them and Iran is not in desperate situation.
You're not taking into account the Saudis and UAE position, If Iran goes nuke, they want the same, Nobody needs a nuclear middle east, It works in no ones favor, certainly not the every day Iranians, Thats a fact.
As far as Iranian speed boats getting near the US ships, the US now has laser technology to burn holes in the engines of agressive ships, boats, and suicide speed boats before they get near the fleet. As far as i'm concerned we should nuke em. We did it before we can do it again. It's a hell of alot cheaper and will save American lives.
we have a prez. w/ no balls. eliminate this country once and for all
I did this dance in 79 and 80, again in 81 and 82, nothing has changed, it would be a massacre for the Iranian's to even approach a carrier with a FC radar painting her, They would be dead in about 30 seconds. Don't dance with the US Navy, The USN will surly put a whooping on your ass but quick, also remember there is certainly a Grey Lady, Maybe even two, lurking underneath as well, Listening to every single prop in the region and reporting everything topside. That folks I can assure you.
glad McCain didn't win, we would have 2 more wars, with this crap from Iran