Off you go, then
August 23rd, 2010 | Carriers Maritime operations The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Iranian mariners rescued by the carrier Harry S. Truman waved goodbye as a ship's boat ferried them to an Iranian warship. // MCSN Tyler Caswell / Navy
After what must have felt like a long interlude as guests of the U.S. Navy, eight Iranian seafarers are — one presumes — on their way home again. Helicopters from the carrier Harry S. Truman rescued the men last week after their vessel caught fire in the Arabian Sea, and the Americans sailors fed, clothed and took care of them after the ordeal. The crew of the Truman, at no extra charge, contacted an Iranian warship and ferried the mariners to it via small boat.
This is from a 5th Fleet announcement: “Speaking through a translator assigned to Truman, the fishermen expressed their gratitude for the treatment they received while aboard the aircraft carrier. The translator also conveyed that the fisherman prayed for and blessed the pilots and medical team who had helped them.”
Now, see? Isn’t that nice? See how much nicer it is when you don’t abduct people and cause an international incident?
The Gulf War plus 20
August 17th, 2010 | Historical The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
The battleship Wisconsin launched a Tomahawk cruise missile against Iraqi targets during the Persian Gulf War. Twenty years later, U.S. warships still patrol the Gulf. // DoD
The U.S. military entered its modern era in 1990, when it began a campaign that would deliver a devastating, quick and apparently (but not actually) bloodless defeat to an international villain. The force exorcised the demons of Vietnam, proved after decades of nuclear tension that it could win a decisive conventional victory, and did it all with enormous support at home. Enraptured with their success, American leaders have been trying to repeat it ever since — sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
But if the first Gulf War was the dawn of today’s military era, the force itself is definitely in a different epoch. In 1990, for example, the Navy had 566 ships, and the ones that went to war had names we don’t hear anymore: America, Ranger, Saratoga, Missouri, Wisconsin. The carriers were launching planes long since grounded: A-7 Corsairs; A-6 Intruders; S-3 Vikings; F-14 Tomcats. Today the Navy has 290 ships, one and a half models of strike aircraft, and, no longer content to just support operations from the sea, it has 9,300 sailors on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, right, that’s the other thing — 20 years after the Gulf War, we’re still there.
There’s much more: Military Times has launched an online retrospective about the first Gulf War and its aftermath, which includes classic issues of Navy Times; special stories; and plenty of chances for you to sound off about where you were, what you remember and how the force has changed. Check it out.
The doc on the beat
August 11th, 2010 | The greenside The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
Marine Corps photographer Cpl. Lindsay Sayres has a great set of photos this morning about HM2 Claire E. Ballante, a member of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines’ Female Engagement Team, which helps keep the peace in Helmand Province. Above, Ballante patrols with the Marines in her unit in Musa Qa’leh.
Ballante and her FETmates are specifically assigned to meet and talk with Afghan women and families — parts of the population that, for cultural reasons, male Marines are seldom permitted to see.
Ballante and 1/2′s FET are billeted in an old hooch dubbed “The White House,” where they relax by, among other things, reading Allure.
The oil police
August 9th, 2010 | The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
GM2 David Turner stood guard on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf as his boarding team from the cruiser Mobile Bay searched the ship. You may not see the cost of Turner, his crewmates and his ship when you fill up your gas tank, but you're paying it. // PA2 Zachary Crawford / Coast Guard
Information Dissemination author Bryan McGrath has a must-read post this morning that links to a great writeup in Foreign Policy magazine about a subject nobody likes to discuss: How much does our oil addiction really cost? I think regular unleaded was $2.78 a gallon at the Shell Station of Excellence around the corner, but as McGrath and F-P author Peter Maas point out, that’s just a “down payment:” If you want to figure out what a tank of gas really costs, you’ve got to start thinking about the budget of the Defense Department, especially the Navy, among other expenses.
We like to think of the armed services as “a force for good” — the Navy makes that claim openly — protecting us from bad guys, righting wrongs and such, but as McGrath and Maas write, the United States effectively uses its military as an international oil police, which uses the threat of destruction to keep the flow going. So Americans actually pay much more than we think for the luxury of sitting in our beloved automobiles, because we also have to pay for the ships and sailors that protect the Al Basrah Oil Terminal, and the Strait of Hormuz, and keep traffic moving through the Red Sea, and so on. (Not to mention the armed men who protect the wells, refineries, pipelines, etc. etc.) Maas cites a study that says the total cost of the naval forces to patrol the Persian Gulf was $7.3 trillion over 30 years.
The question is, if the U.S. ever gets serious about “energy independence” and “alternative energy” — two very big ifs — will that mean it needs to downsize the fleet? McGrath’s analysis is this: “We’re simply not going to wean ourselves from oil anytime soon, and if we want to remain a global ECONOMIC power, we need to remain a global NAVAL power.”
What damaged the M Star? Here’s what it wasn’t
July 29th, 2010 | merchant ships Submarines The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
What could've caused this damage to the hull of the crude carrier M Star? Probably not a submarine. // AP via Emirates News Service
Here’s another high-seas mystery: The oil tanker M Star docked in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday after it had been damaged somehow during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz. That much we know. What we do not know is causing a buzz in maritime circles online.
Maybe it hit some floating wreckage, or, as some have suggested, a fizzled mine. If M Star hit another ship, what happened to it? Captains usually stick around after fender benders on the water. Another idea is that the M Star, a Marshal Islands-flagged very large crude carrier, collided with a submarine, which then sneaked away. This seems unlikely. Unfortunately, the Navy has already demonstrated what happens when a surface ship hits a submarine in the Strait of Hormuz, and this doesn’t quite match.
The fast attack submarine Hartford collided with the amphibious transport dock New Orleans in the strait last year, and the damage to both ships was much greater than what the M Star appears to have suffered. Together Hartford and New Orleans needed more than $102 million worth of repairs, and New Orleans was sliced open pretty bad. M Star endured some kind of small “explosion,” as it’s been described, that dented the hull and shook up the crew — but, at least according to the initial reports, didn’t let in any water.
That doesn’t make the idea that a crude carrier may have been attacked in one of the tensest parts of the world any less ominous, especially if it emerges that pirates or terrorists hit the ship with a suicide boat. That has happened before, too.
What do you make of it all?
Iran’s massive armada
July 26th, 2010 | Ships The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
The destroyer Roosevelt trained to deal with a swarm attack at sea. In case of a real conflict with Iran, there would be 99 more of those small attackers, according to a new report. // Navy
The Navy wants to eventually build a fleet of 313 warships, but that won’t matter if the proverbial balloon goes up and unpleasantness occurs between the U.S. and Iran, according to a new report: Iran says it has 100 vessels for every American ship, making it effectively invulnerable at sea.
Quick back-of-the-envelope math: Today’s Status of the Navy page lists the U.S. battle force at 290 ships (the “Status” numbers tend to be a bit sketchy, but let’s accept this one for now). Two hundred ninety times 100 equals 29,000! That means that Iran has the largest navy in history by an enormous margin — so many combat vessels that you could walk their decks from Bandar Abbas to Doha without getting your feet wet. So many vessels, in fact, that Iran’s real strategy in case of war is probably just to sortie them all at once, so that they physically block deep-draft ships from using any of the navigable water in the Persian Gulf.
This is ridiculous, you say. Yes, you’re right.
Reporter’s Notebook: CNO @ Heritage Foundation
May 14th, 2010 | Aviation Ballistic missile defense Carriers China Environment Foreign navies leadership Maritime operations Navy Personnel The Middle East The Pacific Washington | Posted by Lance Bacon
Adm. Gary Roughead speaks at the Heritage Foundation's annual series of events aimed at highlighting key national defense and homeland security issues. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Tiffini Jones Vanderwyst)
Date: May 13, 2010
Location: Heritage Foundation, Washington D.C.
Subj: CNO comments
In a speech and response to questions offered at the Heritage Foundation Thursday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead urged fiscal responsibility yet downplayed talk of further cuts to Navy ships and programs.
He agreed with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ call for greater scrutiny in procurement, and said he is a “proponent” for considering revisions to decades-old laws governing personnel issues. (You can read more about that in Monday’s edition of Navy Times).
Other highlights: Read the rest of this entry »
Seven in Seven
May 7th, 2010 | Carriers Congress Foreign navies leadership Life at Sea Maritime operations Naval Academy Navy NECC Officers Sea Air Space SEALs Ships Submarines The Middle East Washington | Posted by Lance Bacon
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead meets sailors and their families at Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tenn. Roughead was in Millington to get a first-hand look at damage sustained from flooding. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ronda Spaulding)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates dropped the bomb of the week. In his first invitation to the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium, Gates suggested a need for cutting carriers, sinking SSBN(X) and eliminating Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles. You can read Gates’ speech here, and find out how this affects you in Monday’s edition of Navy Times.
Speaking of amphibious operations, the personnel bubbas in Millington are starting to dry out. Two days of rain dumped more than 14 inches in the area. A levee couldn’t hold the water back and the base was flooded. This delayed one promotion board and threw many administrative matters into chaos, but the crew weathered the storm in true Navy fashion.
Here’s seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven days that you may not have seen, but are worthy of notice:
Iranians filming the Eisenhower?
May 4th, 2010 | Aviation Carriers Foreign navies Maritime operations Navy The Middle East | Posted by Andrew Tilghman
So what was that Iranian aircraft doing buzzing over the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower last week?
Filming it, according to the Iran’s naval chief.
TEHRAN – An Iranian navy plane that came close to a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf was filming the vessel, the Fars news agency quoted Iran’s naval chief as saying on Tuesday.
“The F27 plane of the navy flew above this aircraft carrier and took a thorough film. Despite the carrier’s objection we insist that this is our right,” the agency quoted Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari as saying.
Eyeball to eyeball
April 29th, 2010 | Maritime operations Ships The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
The cruiser Hue City is one of the Aegis escorts for the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, and in all likelihood paid close attention to the recent visit by an Iranian navy patrol plane. // CT3 Clayton Reyes / Navy
As recently as Monday, we were asking which navy was going to take the place of Russia as the world’s aggressive high-seas bad boy — China is a contender, and now Iran wants to play, too. An Iranian navy maritime patrol plane last week decided to trip the light fantastic in the airspace above the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, although U.S. officials stateside said it was no big deal.
Iranian commanders have not released audio from the plane’s cockpit recorder, but it’s a fair bet that the pilot heard a lot of unpleasant tones as his threat-warning sensors sang out about all the Aegis energy coming from the sea below. Just as the crew of the Iranian Fokker F27 was probably enjoying its orbit over the American ships, so too were the sailors in the Ike’s escort, the cruiser Hue City, probably enjoying painting the plane with their fire-control radar. Fine sport!
Then again, people can get a little stressed out carrying on this way. Have you ever had a tense encounter with an air or surface contact at sea? How’d you handle it?