Spanning(en) rond Iran

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Senior MP: US Warships Unable to Counter Iranian Navy

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian legislator played down deployment of new US warships in the Persian Gulf, saying that the US navy is not able to counter the Iranian naval forces in the region.

"These warships are not able to counter the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Army's Navies," Mohammad Javad Kolivand told FNA on Saturday.

"In case of the smallest mistake by the Americans or any other country against our country's interests, we will send the US warships down to the deep waters of the Persian Gulf," he added.

Kolivand said that as the Iranian military commanders have underlined frequently, the US warships are the best targets for the Iranian missiles and the IRGC speed boats.

His remarks came after Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps naval force General Ali Fadavi said that the US warships in the Persian Gulf are fully respecting Iran's warnings since dire consequences will be waiting for them otherwise.

"Considering that in the end of the (Iraqi imposed) war (in the 1980s) a one-billion-dollar US warship and its choppers were destroyed, naturally now that the IRGC navy enjoys full might and power in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, Americans comply with the IRGC warnings, otherwise very bad consequences will be waiting for them, although we have never seen them disobey in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf," General Fadavi said last Saturday.

Asked about the possibility of a military conflict between Iran and the US, the General said, "The possibility of a conflict depends on the level of the stupidity of the westerners."

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9104250866

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Iran parliament backs draft law to close Hormuz

Just over half of Iran's parliament has backed a draft law to block the Strait of Hormuz, a lawmaker said, threatening to close the Gulf to oil tankers in retaliation against European sanctions on Iranian crude.

The assembly has little say in defence and foreign policy, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word, but the law would lend political support to any decision to close the strait - a threat that Iran's foreign minister recently played down.

Lawmaker Javad Karimi Qodoosi said 150 of parliament's 290 members had signed the bill, describing the strait as 'the world's lock' to which Iran holds the key.

'If the sanctions continue, the countries that have imposed sanctions have no right to cross the Strait of Hormuz without harm,' the Iranian Students' News Agency quoted Qodoosi as saying.

A heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf and surrounding area is a big impediment to any attempt to block the vital shipping route through which 40 per cent of the world's seaborne oil exports passes. Qodoosi dismissed this obstacle.

'From a military standpoint, the power to close the Strait of Hormuz is 100 per cent there ... if we close the Strait of Hormuz, no country will be able to open it'.

Iranian threats to close the shipping channel have multiplied in response to sanctions placed on its crude exports by Western powers. The European Union banned imports from July 1 and non-EU Turkey has slashed purchases.

The sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at creating an atomic weapon and Tehran says is for peaceful energy purposes.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Reuters earlier this month Iran was unlikely to follow through on the treat to close the strait.

'Probably those who have suggested this idea have in mind that if Iran is denied access to the Persian Gulf for whatever reason ... then Iran will probably react appropriately ... But I don't think such a time will ever come,' he said.-Reuters

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/LAW_220718.html

[Tanker]

mooi verhaal, is het ook realistisch ?

[Harald]

Israel's First Strike on Iran's Nuclear Facilities – Part 3

Outbound and aftermath: Part 3 of a scenario for the first Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program

In the first and second parts of this series, we described the strike package of fighters and supporting aircraft making the first attack in Israel's air campaign against the Iranian nuclear weapons program. With their weapons delivered, the Israelis must now get safely out of Iranian territory.

Word of the Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities only reached the fighter squadrons as the bombs were falling. Four air bases are in position to intercept the outbound strike: Tactical Airbase (TAB) 4 at Vahdati, TAB 5 at Omidiyeh, TAB 6 at Bushehr, and TAB 7 at Shiraz.

The alert birds at Vahdati are a pair of F-5Es detailed from one the three squadrons based there. Omidiyeh has three F-7 squadrons (Chinese MiG-21 clones), but they are Iranian Republican Guard Corps (IRGC), with no air-to-air training. They launch the alert planes anyway. They're still fighter pilots, after all. Shiraz is no help. It only has one abbreviated squadron of F-5s, and none of them are on alert.

Bushehr, on Iran's southern coast, has the best chance, launching two pairs of alert F-4s and an F-14 "Persian Cat." The F-14 is carrying Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles for self-defense, but the back-seater's main role is as a fighter intercept controller.

The Iranians still have only the vaguest idea where the strike is heading, probably to the south-southwest, and the F-14's job is to find it using its AWG-9 radar. Thirty-six years after being delivered to the Shah's Iran, the F-14's radar is still the most powerful sensor in the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.

The silenced Iranian radars now work against Israel as well as Iran. The Israeli eavesdroppers know where interceptors have taken off from, and they can listen to voice reports from the Iranian pilots, but they don't know the exact positions of the hostile fighters. In a dark sky, flying at 500 – 600 knots, both sides are blindly groping for the other.

The Israeli raid commander can see the signal from the F-14's AWG-9, and immediately vectors a pair of the fighter escorts to shoot it down, but it's too late. The Tomcat has spotted the outbound Israeli raid and broadcast its location, course, and speed to the interceptors, who immediately adjust their course. The F-14 driver then immediately shuts down his radar and repositions southwest at full military. He'll set up for another look in a few minutes.


The jig is up, as far as the Israeli commander's concerned. There's no point in concealment, and he orders all fighter escorts and defense suppression aircraft to energize their radars. Sixteen fighters ranged on either side of the outbound strikers immediately sweep the airspace. The F-5s and F-7s, both only armed with IR-homing missiles, are spotted and killed well out of range.

The Bushehr F-4s use a "high-low" tactic, and while the upper pair is quickly found and killed, again outside of range, the lower pair, on burner, gets close enough to each launch a pair of Sparrow missiles at the strikers. The four elderly Sparrow missiles are met with a wall of chaff and jamming, and the second pair of F-4s, committed to guide the Sparrows in, are destroyed, rendering their missiles useless.

The rest of the trip back to base is uneventful, and all aircraft land safely.

This hypothetical account is based on the research, design, and gameplay involved in developing Persian Incursion, a wargame published by Clash of Arms in 2010 and written by Chris Carlson, Jeff Dougherty, and myself. It details both Israeli and Iranian military capabilities in an extended air campaign intended to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program. During the design and gameplay, we did our best to reproduce the tactics and techniques each side would use. There are several important points that we came away with, and that appear in this account:
There can be no Israeli campaign without an arrangement with one of three countries that lie between Israel and Iran. The government of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, or Iraq must explicitly, if secretly, give the Israelis permission to use their airspace for a period as long as a week. This involves not just the airstrikes, but pre-and post-strike reconnaissance missions, tanker flights, and potentially damaged aircraft and rescue missions.
The Israeli Air Force outclasses the Iranian Air Force and Air Defense Forces (a separate service). They have better equipment and better training. They're not just a little better, they're a lot better.
In the end, the military outcome doesn't matter. In the narrative above, I didn't bother resolving the attack, because those PGMs are really aimed at the minds of the Iranian leadership. To win this campaign, not against a physical enemy but Iranian intentions, the Israelis must demonstrate the ability to not just destroy one installation, but all of them. Easily. With little or no loss.

Those hundred-plus PGMs will almost certainly blow to oblivion the three nuclear facilities at Isfahan, but what will the Iranian Supreme Leader think when he looks at the destruction? Will he conclude that there's no future in an Iranian nuclear bomb program, or will he just start rebuilding?

And what will he think tomorrow, when a second raid destroys the reactor and heavy water plant at Arak?

And the day after that?

http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/israels-first-strike-on-irans-nuclear-facilities-part-3/

[Ace1]

US unveils anti-mine operation near Gulf

The United States and about 20 other nations will hold a major anti-mine operation near the Gulf in September, the Pentagon said Tuesday, after Iran threatened it could block oil shipments.
The maneuvers, including a symposium on mine countermeasures, will be held between September 16 to 27, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
"It's a defensive exercise aimed at preserving freedom of navigation in international waterways in the Middle East," Little said.
The United States has deployed the USS Ponce to serve as logistical backup in the anti-mine effort.
It has doubled to eight the number of minesweepers in the Gulf and sent in four MH-53 Sea Stallion anti-mine choppers as well as underwater drones.
"This is not an exercise that's aimed to deliver a message to Iran," Little said. "This is an exercise that's designed to, within this multinational forum, increase our capabilities and cooperation."
Washington has warned Tehran not to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has threatened to do if international sanctions against its nuclear program begin to bite.
The Pentagon is also building a missile defense radar station at a covert location in Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The site will be part of a system intended to defend the interests of the United States and its regional allies against Iranian rockets, unnamed US officials told the newspaper.
A similar radar has existed on Mount Keren in the Negev Desert since 2008 and another is installed in Turkey as part of NATO's missile defense shield.

http://www.defencetalk.com/us-unveils-anti-mine-operation-near-gulf-43792/#ixzz210HaMHVU


Read more: http://www.defencetalk.com/us-unveils-anti-mine-operation-near-gulf-43792/#ixzz210HWIXys

[KapiteinRob]

Nog een wat meer steelse presentie in de regio?

Staat er niet ergens (nog) een Hercules op Mirage?

[Lex]

Het zou zo kunnen zijn dat NL meedoet met een of meedere duikteams van de DDG. Ze hebben vorig jaar  tenslotte nog deelgenomen aan RIMPAC.

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

LPD lost LCF af, dus die situatie duurt maar heel kort.

Oké,

Nog een wat meer steelse presentie in de regio?

[KapiteinRob]

LPD lost LCF af, dus die situatie duurt maar heel kort.

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Het is "niet zo ver" van de piratenarea naar de wateren bij Iran. Zolang we geen OPV's sturen valt er altijd wel iets bij te dragen. Als we dat al zouden willen....

Precies en volgens mij heeft NL de aankomende periode zijn meest indrukwekkende presentie sinds jaren in die regio (LPD en LCF) en  ik heb geen zicht op SSK bewegingen.

[KapiteinRob]

Het is "niet zo ver" van de piratenarea naar de wateren bij Iran. Zolang we geen OPV's sturen valt er altijd wel iets bij te dragen. Als we dat al zouden willen....

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Moet dat dan?

Pesoonlijk denk ik de de regio vol ligt met materiaal, wat mij betreft zou de beste NL bijdrage een Sub zijn.

[onderofficier]

Zou Nederland ook van de partij zijn?

Moet dat dan?

[Tanker]

We hebben F-16's die foto's kunnen maken of een mijnenjager die op mijnen kan jagen 
Dat is onze bijdrage zouden onze politici zeggen....

[Jah]

Zou Nederland ook van de partij zijn?

Wat denk je zelf?

Redelijk onwaarschijnlijk, maar sluit het niet uit.