In recent months there has been a series of incidents between United States Navy vessels and small Iranian fast gunboats in the Persian Gulf area. The Iranian gunboats harassed and threatened US Navy ships in a manner which the Navy called an “unsafe and unprofessional encounter”.
Saturday, November 26th the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) passed through the Strait of Hormuz leaving the Persian Gulf with a pair of Iranian patrol boats trailing them. The Eisenhower launched a US Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter which approached one of the Iranian boats. Reports are that the Iranian gunboat aimed their guns at the helicopter but did not fire.
“The CSG launched an MH-60R Seahawk to investigate the vicinity and monitor the boats during the transit of the carrier and its escorts. At about a half mile from the helicopter, the crew of one of the two boats trained their weapon on the helicopter twice before the helicopter returned to USS Eisenhower (CVN-69). The patrol boats did not come close to the carrier itself, the officials said. – USNI News.
This is the latest of many encounters between Iranian fast boats and the US Navy but the first since Donald Trump was elected President.
Back in September, then presidential candidate Trump stated at a rally at Pensacola, FL, “And by the way, with Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats and they make gestures that our people, that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.”
Image courtesy of AFP
Featured Image U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Jay C. Pugh, via Wikimedia Commons