Monday, August 14, 2017

BLAST THOSE DRONES: Iranian drone flies within 1,000-feet of US aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf and buzzes warplanes for the second time in a week

An Iranian Sadegh drone flew without any warning lights during the encounter Sunday night with the USS Nimitz
Lt Ian McConnaughey added that the drone 'conducted an unsafe and unprofessional approach'
There were repeated calls made but there was no response from the drone
So far this year, the Navy has recorded 14 instances of what it describes as 'unsafe and/or unprofessional' interactions with Iranians forces
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor amid new sanctions targeting Iran over its ballistic missile tests

An unarmed Iranian drone shadowed a U.S. aircraft carrier at night and came close enough to F-18 fighter jets to put the lives of American pilots at risk, the Navy said Tuesday, reporting the second such tense encounter within a week.

The Iranian Sadegh drone 'conducted an unsafe and unprofessional approach' and flew without any warning lights during the encounter Sunday night with the USS Nimitz, said Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

'Despite repeated radio calls to establish communications and remain clear, the QOM-1's controlling station was unresponsive and the (drone) did not use any aircraft navigation lights while it made several passes in close proximity to Nimitz and its escort ships during active flight operations, coming within 1,000 feet of US aircraft,' he said.

Sunday night an Iranian QOM-1 drone fly within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of aircraft based on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier (pictured in a file photo) while operating in international waters

That 'created a dangerous situation with the potential for collision and is not in keeping with international maritime customs and laws,' McConnaughey said in a statement.

The drone was unarmed, the lieutenant said, though that model can carry missiles.

Iran's military and state-run media did not immediately report the incident, which came after a similar encounter August 8, in which the Navy said an Iranian drone came within 100 feet (30 meters) of an F-18 preparing to land on the Nimitz. Iranian vessels and U.S. warships have also had tense encounters in recent months.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor amid new sanctions targeting Iran over its ballistic missile tests.

So far this year, the Navy has recorded 14 instances of what it describes as 'unsafe and/or unprofessional' interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016 and 23 in 2015. The incidents at sea almost always involved Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

So far this year, the Navy has recorded 14 instances of what it describes as 'unsafe and/or unprofessional' interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016 and 23 in 2015.

The incidents at sea almost always involved Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some analysts believe the incidents are meant in part to squeeze moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration after the 2015 nuclear deal.

Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing and holding overnight 10 U.S. sailors who strayed into the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.

Iranian forces in turn accuse the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes.

‘Persian Gulf is No Place for US Navy’ THE US NAVY IS FACING FIERCE RESISTANCE TO BE IN SMALL INTERNATIONAL WATERS PROTECTING OUR MARITIME COMMERCE IN THE BALTICS, PERSIAN GULF AND THE ARCTIC

This handout image provided Tuesday, July 25, 2017, from the U.S. Navy purports to show an Iranian vessel making a close approach to a U.S. coastal patrol ship USS Thunderbolt, right. The U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots near the Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf.

A US Navy patrol boat fired warning shots on Tuesday near an Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf. Tehran slammed the incident as “a provocation.” In an interview with Sputnik, military expert Dmitry Litovkin said that the mere presence of US warships in the Gulf is fraught with unpredictable consequences.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) blamed the American vessel, the USS Thunderbolt, for provoking the tense encounter.

US Navy Tests Laser Weapons System in Persian Gulf (VIDEO)

It said that the US ship had come dangerously close to the Iranian naval ship on a patrol mission in international waters the north of the Gulf, and fired two warning shots “with the intention of provoking and intimidating” the Iranian sailors.According to Iran’s Press TV, the Iranian ship ignored the Americans’ “provocative and unprofessional act” and proceeded with its mission. The IRGC later said that the US ship had left the area.

In an interview with Radio Sputnik, military expert, Captain 3rd Rank, Dmitry Litovkin said that there is no place for the US Navy in the Persian Gulf.

“The Persian Gulf is very far away from US territorial waters. Still, it was the American ship that opened fire. Iran is washed by the Persian Gulf and has a security zone there, which it controls. What the US Navy is doing there is a very big question,” Litovkin said.

He added that the Americans have several big naval bases in the region, which apparently control oil traffic in the Gulf.

“From the standpoint of the International Law of the Seas, the Americans’ actions in the Gulf are absolutely illegal. What are they doing there? They are conducting a military operation in Iraq and trying to impose democracy on Syria. All the other countries in the region which are against this are thus seen as being in the way,” Litovkin noted.

He said that the US was doing much the same in other parts of the globe.

“I remember how a Russian fighter jet ”buzzed” a US destroyer in the Black Sea, turning on its electronic jammer and forcing the shocked Americans to beat a hasty retreat. However, it was the US ship approaching our shores, not our plane flying towards the US coast. It’s a case of who is at home and who is not,” Dmitry Litovkin emphasized.

The Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) USS Ponce (ASB(I) 15) conducts an operational demonstration of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)-sponsored Laser Weapon System (LaWS) while deployed to the Arabian Gulf.

US Navy Ship Fires Warning Shots at Iranian Vessel in Arabian Gulf – Reports

In a similar incident in August, Pentagon officials said Iranian speedboats had “harassed” US warships in the Strait of Hormuz. They claimed that Iranian boats moved close to two US Navy destroyers with their weapons uncovered in the strait in an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounter.Based on the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Iran has the right to “decisively confront” any menacing passage through the Str
ait of Hormuz, according to IRGC second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami then told Press TV.

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