USS Boxer Destroys Iranian Drone In The Strait of Hormuz
[guest post by Dana]
“The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a near distance, approximately 1000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down threatening safety of ship and ship’s crew.”
The president added that Iran’s drone “was immediately destroyed.”
Trump said the drone’s approach of the Boxer is “the latest of many provocative and hostile actions against vessels operating in international waters.”
He said the United States “reserves [the] right to defend our personnel, facilities, condemn iran’s (sic) attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce.”
Trump also called “on other nations to protect their ships as they go through the straight and work with us in the future.”
Here is the Pentagon’s statement:
At approximately 10 a.m. local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz.
A fixed wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within a threatening range. The ship took defensive action against the UAS to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew[.]
The USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, is part of a build-up of Navy ships in the region following Iran shooting down a U.S. surveillance drone and the seizure of a foreign oil tanker by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
And in further news about the U.S. and Iran: Contrary to chatter, President Trump said today that he has not appointed Rand Paul to serve as an emissary to Iran. He did say, however, that he respects the Kentucky senator and would listen to any ideas he has about increasing tensions in the region. Further, President Trump also disputed talk that he had plans to send an emissary to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
On a side note, there is a report that a US sailor is missing after falling overboard off the USS Abraham Lincoln:
Dana (bb0678) — 7/18/2019 @ 2:38 pmIs there any more news about that UAE tanker that managed to disappear itself?
Kishnevi (14a2e1) — 7/18/2019 @ 2:43 pm@2. Philadelphia Experiment. 😉
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/18/2019 @ 2:45 pmWill saying ” In The Strait of Hormuz” become a homophobic slur?
mg (8cbc69) — 7/18/2019 @ 2:54 pmIran said a couple days ago that they had towed for repairs. I can’t find anything since then. At last report, nobody would admit to owning the ship.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/18/2019 @ 3:08 pmIt may be a good idea to capture some members of their Navy, to return the favor and show teh Iranian nitwits the same respect they showed the US Navy and 0bama a few years ago.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2019 @ 3:19 pmFor what it’s worth (or not worth: Haaretz is reporting that Iran released video of what they say looks like the disappeared vessel. Haaretz and Iran State TV…
Dana (bb0678) — 7/18/2019 @ 3:34 pmSorry, Dana, I hesitated to post this out or regard for you and for all the hard work you put in on this site, and believe you me I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say how much we appreciate it, but you lost me with the first line, “From President Trump.” The most I am prepared to believe now is that some little Iranian kid is crying over his lost RC model.
nk (dbc370) — 7/18/2019 @ 4:17 pmwe give then 150 billion dollars with no strings attached, we let a drone crash deep inside the country in 2012, which likely has been reverse engineered, some idiot Obama official actually gave away the source of stuixnet to the times, what do we expect would happen,
narciso (d1f714) — 7/18/2019 @ 4:28 pmIt was ~50 billion, and it was their own money, held in foreign banks.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/18/2019 @ 4:34 pmI know many people won’t care, but is there an international standard for destroying an air craft over the open sea?
Mark (25e171) — 7/18/2019 @ 4:45 pmTo me this appears to be a tit-for-tat response to the recent downing of a drone by Iran.
Dave, that’s merely a detail, and that true detail doesn’t feelz as true as the lie, so when reality and feelz collide tRumpsters must go with feelz.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 7/18/2019 @ 4:45 pmDana, where did that “[sic]” come from? The article now has the complete quote rather than what may have been some reporter’s shorthand. Hard to tell now, of course.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 7/18/2019 @ 6:29 pmI know many people won’t care, but is there an international standard for destroying an air craft over the open sea?
Among the people who won’t care are the air-defense officers aboard the Boxer, who were probably wanting to shoot the damn thing down sooner. Sure, if it had been manned they might have waited longer. And they might not have.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 7/18/2019 @ 6:32 pmIt was ~50 billion, and it was their own money, held in foreign banks.
We should have at least subtracted the fees for storage.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 7/18/2019 @ 6:35 pmI hope it’s not for “Barbara” Boxer.
urbanleftbehind (2194d9) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:08 pmYour hope is realized. It’s named after another ship, HMS Boxer.
nk (dbc370) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:18 pm1000 Meters (I guarantee no one used yards) is damn close. It was probably a small drone, and at that range they’d either be using one of the new drone disrupter guns or the CIWS, which you have to make sure the range is clear for about 5km when you fire off a few hundred 20mm rounds, a quarter of the straights depending on where they were. I highly doubt they fired off a SeaRAM @$1m for an 11 round box or a Sea Sparrow @$150k. In the future they’ll have lasers mounted for this, and I think all the LHD’s are on the schedule for them as point defense weapons to replace the Phalanx CIWS.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:21 pmBelay that. I think I got my Boxers mixed up too.
nk (dbc370) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:21 pmBelay my belay. I was right the first time.
nk (dbc370) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:24 pmIts precursor was featured in Toko ri, and it was on stand by off playa giron
Narciso (c67b88) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:33 pmHeh. The HMS Boxer was captured after a short, one-sided engagement with the USS Enterprise in the War of 1812.
The Enterprise’s first broadside not only killed the Boxer’s captain, but dismasted her. Enterprise then maneuvered in a circle around the immobile British ship and raked her at will for half an hour until she struck her colors.
Don’t mess with the USS Enterprise.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:34 pmIt was a Marine portable Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System mounted on an ATV. It uses a directional radio jammer to disrupt the drone controls and crash them.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 7/18/2019 @ 7:44 pmCol., from what I read it was Marine computer technicians onboard the Boxer who hacked into the drone and caused it to crash into the sea. In other words, it was not shot out of the sky, but taken over electronically and forced to self-destruct. American technology.
Anyway, do you know who Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is? He was the original lead guitar player for Steely Dan, but he only played on their first two albums. He continued his career as a studio musician and became a producer; he was also an amateur pilot. His next door neighbor in Southern California was an Air Force pilot, and one day he gave him an aviation magazine. In it was an article about anti-aircraft technology on Navy aircraft carriers.
Baxter read it and thought, hey, that’s the same technology I use for mixing sound in the studio. So he wrote a short paper on compression and gave it to his neighbor, who passed it along to command. From that paper the AEGIS anti-missile defense system was developed.
Yep. When musicians can figure out how to use technology to take out your most powerful weapons, fighter jets and missiles, your military sucks.
American ingenuity, that’s where it’s at.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 7/19/2019 @ 5:21 amFrom that paper the AEGIS anti-missile defense system was developed.
Yep. When musicians can figure out how to use technology to take out your most powerful weapons, fighter jets and missiles, your military sucks.
And the AEGIS system really distinguished itself on the USS Stark when the ship was hit by an Iraqi missile and 37 American sailors were killed, and on the USS Vincennes when it brought down a civilian airliner and killed all 290 people aboard.
When musicians design your military toys, and then some demented old loons send young men to play with them in war zones …. What does that say?
nk (dbc370) — 7/19/2019 @ 5:52 amThe Stark didn’t carry an AEGIS system. It was a frigate and the AEGIS is deployed on larger cruisers and destroyers.
The one on the Vincennes performed flawlessly. The AEGIS radar correctly identified the airliner’s IFF code as civilian. The plane was not shot down by the AEGIS system.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/19/2019 @ 7:36 amThe thing about this is it might not have a governmental drone at all. I have a Parrot Disco flying wing drone, and having added a larger battery and 4G LTE mod, I’ve flown it over 50 miles round trip, and you can program it to fly way-points automatically when out of communication range. That’s plenty of range to cross the straights, heck, people have flown almost 200 miles with a giant battery mod, and I only paid $390 when discontinued by Parrot.
I’d like to see what it looks like, and the LMADIS would have crashed it into the ocean, so it should be available.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 7/19/2019 @ 7:44 amHeh! Somebody up the thread already wrote:
nk (dbc370) — 7/19/2019 @ 7:49 amActually, if true, it sounds like exactly what the Iranians did to *our* drone a few years ago.
They “drowned out” the legitimate GPS signals (which are not encrypted) with bogus ones from much closer by, and then fooled the drone into landing at their base.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/19/2019 @ 8:00 amThis sounds like what Col Klink said:
DRJ (15874d) — 7/19/2019 @ 8:15 am