Iran, China Intent on Countering Navies
U.S. and Israeli Ships Targeted, Hezbollah Successfully Strikes with Iranian Missile
The aircraft carrier - a mobile island of air power - provides U.S. officials with a range of options in conducting relations with hostile or potentially hostile states - from merely a “presence” to the insertion of power ashore in wartime. Often, the enormous firepower that the aircraft carrier and its associated group of ships bring to bear is sufficient to deter acts of aggression before they are carried out or quickly extinguish any that may have begun. Not surprisingly, enormous military resources have been invested into protecting these critical assets. Recent events in the Pacific Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea could indicate that carrier force protection has slipped even as regional powers increase their ability to project power above and below the water’s surface.
USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney Harbor, Australia.
On November 13, roughly 24 hours before experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly discovered traces of plutonium and enriched uranium at an Iranian nuclear waste facility - further escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington - the Iranian government released what it claimed to be video from an indigenously-built unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that penetrated the air defenses of a U.S. carrier group operating in the Persian Gulf. The one-minute movie aired on the state-run Al Alam television network and showed a U.S. aircraft carrier underway with a flight deck packed with aircraft. While the Iranian broadcast did not mention when the footage was shot, it was claimed that Iranian officials possess ten such films that show, “more precise information and details about military equipment, foreign forces, and their activities in the Persian Gulf.”
Iranian officials claimed to have over flown another U.S. aircraft carrier in May 2006. And although no footage from that incident was released, Iranian press reports claimed that U.S. naval aircraft were launched in response to the incident but the UAV was able to return to Iranian airspace unscathed. U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Bashon Mann “categorically denied” the incident took place and dismissed the media accounts of the story as “erroneous,” insisting, “no [U.S.] planes were scrambled at all, that did not happen,” according to the Navy Times, June 2, 2006.
Iranian/Russian Surveillance
U.S. Navy officials believe the video of the aircraft carrier released by Iran on November 13 is much older than Tehran claims. One reason in particular is the presence of F-14D Tomcat fighters on the flight deck. The F-14 was retired from U.S. Navy service in September and hasn’t operated in the Persian Gulf since late February. Moreover, the U.S. Navy puts out a public media release when U.S. ships are entering and exiting the Gulf, so claims by the Iranian government to surreptitiously locate and track American naval vessels, if accurate, are greatly exaggerated.
Russian Su-27 aircraft.
A confirmed breach in carrier air defense, however, did occur some six-and-a-half years ago when two Russian military jets conducted high-speed, low altitude flyovers of the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan. On December 9, 2000, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon acknowledged Russian warplanes flew over the Kitty Hawk on three different occasions, October 12, October 17, and November 9, 2000. During one of these encounters, a Russian Su-24 Fencer and a Su-27 Flanker allegedly buzzed the Kitty Hawk’s tower at an altitude of 200 feet and the ship was unable to launch an intercept for 30 minutes because it was taking on fuel from another ship and was on a reduced “Alert-30” status of readiness, a level of alert congruent with their location and lack of regional threats, Captain Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, told Stars and Stripes, December 9, 2000.
Bacon added that carrier personnel had detected the inbound aircraft when they were 30-45 miles away from the Task Force. “We see Russian aircraft and Russian ships … all the time. We’re not in the Cold War anymore. No one looked at this as being much of an incident,” Commander Matt Brown, a spokesman for the 7th Fleet Command in Yokosuka, Japan, remarked, according to Stars and Stripes. Adding to the perception that the fly bys were a bit of showmanship, the Russian pilots allegedly sent hi-resolution photographs to the Kitty Hawk’s website and Russian officials reportedly released the same images a few days later that showed a flight deck in disarray and chaos as the crew scrambled to launch intercept aircraft.
Referring to Kitty Hawk’s reduced alert status, Wensing told Stars and Stripes “the battle group decides what kind of status they should be on. If you’re in the middle of the Persian Gulf, it would be a lot different than if you were in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” where the 2000 flyover took place. And it involved a non-hostile country. “If [the incident with Russia took place in] 1960, it would be a different sort of scenario. But it’s 2000.”
The INS Hanit.
Six years later the same cannot be said of Tehran, where the international community may well be on a collision course with Iran over the country’s nuclear enrichment program. Tensions in the Gulf region remain high and the ability of foreign UAVs to penetrate U.S. carrier airspace, if true, is alarming for a number of reasons, not the least of which would be Iran’s ability to locate, identify and track U.S. Navy vessels and monitor operations in the Persian Gulf.
Israel Blunders and Ship is Struck
A breakdown in fleet security occurred in the recent summer war between Israel and Hezbollah forces operating in southern Lebanon. An Israeli Saar-5-class missile corvette, the INS Hanit, was struck on July 14 by a sea skimming, anti-ship missile launched from the Lebanese coast, killing four sailors, crippling the vessel’s steering system and staring fires below the helicopter pad.
The incident reportedly involved two missiles in a coordinated, simultaneous “high/low” attack - the first “high” missile passed over the Israeli ship. Missing the target, it continued flying, hitting and sinking a civilian Egyptian ship cruising 32 miles from the shore. The second missile followed a sea-skimming flight profile hitting the Israeli vessel at the stern, killing the four sailors and setting the flight deck on fire and damaging propulsion and steering systems, according to media reports citing Israel Defense Forces sources. The Hanit was towed to Israel’s Ashdod naval base for repairs. This attack method, according to defense-update.com’s July 17 article “INS Hanit Suffers Iranian Missile Attack”, would require the launch of two types of missiles, a C-801/802 for the “high” profile and a C-701 TV-guided missile for the “low” profile. Both missiles are assembled in Iran from Chinese designs.
http://www.jinsa.org/articles/artic...4/documentid/3652/history/3,2360,656,164,3652
U.S. and Israeli Ships Targeted, Hezbollah Successfully Strikes with Iranian Missile
The aircraft carrier - a mobile island of air power - provides U.S. officials with a range of options in conducting relations with hostile or potentially hostile states - from merely a “presence” to the insertion of power ashore in wartime. Often, the enormous firepower that the aircraft carrier and its associated group of ships bring to bear is sufficient to deter acts of aggression before they are carried out or quickly extinguish any that may have begun. Not surprisingly, enormous military resources have been invested into protecting these critical assets. Recent events in the Pacific Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea could indicate that carrier force protection has slipped even as regional powers increase their ability to project power above and below the water’s surface.
USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney Harbor, Australia.
On November 13, roughly 24 hours before experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly discovered traces of plutonium and enriched uranium at an Iranian nuclear waste facility - further escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington - the Iranian government released what it claimed to be video from an indigenously-built unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that penetrated the air defenses of a U.S. carrier group operating in the Persian Gulf. The one-minute movie aired on the state-run Al Alam television network and showed a U.S. aircraft carrier underway with a flight deck packed with aircraft. While the Iranian broadcast did not mention when the footage was shot, it was claimed that Iranian officials possess ten such films that show, “more precise information and details about military equipment, foreign forces, and their activities in the Persian Gulf.”
Iranian officials claimed to have over flown another U.S. aircraft carrier in May 2006. And although no footage from that incident was released, Iranian press reports claimed that U.S. naval aircraft were launched in response to the incident but the UAV was able to return to Iranian airspace unscathed. U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Bashon Mann “categorically denied” the incident took place and dismissed the media accounts of the story as “erroneous,” insisting, “no [U.S.] planes were scrambled at all, that did not happen,” according to the Navy Times, June 2, 2006.
Iranian/Russian Surveillance
U.S. Navy officials believe the video of the aircraft carrier released by Iran on November 13 is much older than Tehran claims. One reason in particular is the presence of F-14D Tomcat fighters on the flight deck. The F-14 was retired from U.S. Navy service in September and hasn’t operated in the Persian Gulf since late February. Moreover, the U.S. Navy puts out a public media release when U.S. ships are entering and exiting the Gulf, so claims by the Iranian government to surreptitiously locate and track American naval vessels, if accurate, are greatly exaggerated.
Russian Su-27 aircraft.
A confirmed breach in carrier air defense, however, did occur some six-and-a-half years ago when two Russian military jets conducted high-speed, low altitude flyovers of the USS Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan. On December 9, 2000, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon acknowledged Russian warplanes flew over the Kitty Hawk on three different occasions, October 12, October 17, and November 9, 2000. During one of these encounters, a Russian Su-24 Fencer and a Su-27 Flanker allegedly buzzed the Kitty Hawk’s tower at an altitude of 200 feet and the ship was unable to launch an intercept for 30 minutes because it was taking on fuel from another ship and was on a reduced “Alert-30” status of readiness, a level of alert congruent with their location and lack of regional threats, Captain Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, told Stars and Stripes, December 9, 2000.
Bacon added that carrier personnel had detected the inbound aircraft when they were 30-45 miles away from the Task Force. “We see Russian aircraft and Russian ships … all the time. We’re not in the Cold War anymore. No one looked at this as being much of an incident,” Commander Matt Brown, a spokesman for the 7th Fleet Command in Yokosuka, Japan, remarked, according to Stars and Stripes. Adding to the perception that the fly bys were a bit of showmanship, the Russian pilots allegedly sent hi-resolution photographs to the Kitty Hawk’s website and Russian officials reportedly released the same images a few days later that showed a flight deck in disarray and chaos as the crew scrambled to launch intercept aircraft.
Referring to Kitty Hawk’s reduced alert status, Wensing told Stars and Stripes “the battle group decides what kind of status they should be on. If you’re in the middle of the Persian Gulf, it would be a lot different than if you were in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” where the 2000 flyover took place. And it involved a non-hostile country. “If [the incident with Russia took place in] 1960, it would be a different sort of scenario. But it’s 2000.”
The INS Hanit.
Six years later the same cannot be said of Tehran, where the international community may well be on a collision course with Iran over the country’s nuclear enrichment program. Tensions in the Gulf region remain high and the ability of foreign UAVs to penetrate U.S. carrier airspace, if true, is alarming for a number of reasons, not the least of which would be Iran’s ability to locate, identify and track U.S. Navy vessels and monitor operations in the Persian Gulf.
Israel Blunders and Ship is Struck
A breakdown in fleet security occurred in the recent summer war between Israel and Hezbollah forces operating in southern Lebanon. An Israeli Saar-5-class missile corvette, the INS Hanit, was struck on July 14 by a sea skimming, anti-ship missile launched from the Lebanese coast, killing four sailors, crippling the vessel’s steering system and staring fires below the helicopter pad.
The incident reportedly involved two missiles in a coordinated, simultaneous “high/low” attack - the first “high” missile passed over the Israeli ship. Missing the target, it continued flying, hitting and sinking a civilian Egyptian ship cruising 32 miles from the shore. The second missile followed a sea-skimming flight profile hitting the Israeli vessel at the stern, killing the four sailors and setting the flight deck on fire and damaging propulsion and steering systems, according to media reports citing Israel Defense Forces sources. The Hanit was towed to Israel’s Ashdod naval base for repairs. This attack method, according to defense-update.com’s July 17 article “INS Hanit Suffers Iranian Missile Attack”, would require the launch of two types of missiles, a C-801/802 for the “high” profile and a C-701 TV-guided missile for the “low” profile. Both missiles are assembled in Iran from Chinese designs.
http://www.jinsa.org/articles/artic...4/documentid/3652/history/3,2360,656,164,3652
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