exactley, something similar in nature to '88 Operation Praying Mantis

HMS Duncan a Type 45 destroyer is enroute.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48958359

Digesting German and English wikipedia entries (they are not just translations of each other, but are different).


Type 45. Good ships, but not as good as they could have been. Economic superiority over Sheffield class, the ship runs 3-4 times as long with one load of fuel. 4-5 times as high capacity to track mutliple air targets simultaneously and fight them at medium and longer ranges - but only outdated Phalanx system close air defence, no missle-equipped CIWS (big mistake, imo, could become very costly in case of hot combat). Cannon of smaller callibre than initially wanted, sonar, but only helicopter for ASW, no own torpedo launcher. Some more wepaons cpould be armed later on, but it isd questionable that it will happen, due to the budget cuts and high costs of such refits. One or two ships got equipped with Harpoons, and all ships can be later equipped with 16 criuise msisile launch tubes.



Money was saved, by introducing some unneeded vulnerabilities, me thinks. Especially the lacking missile CWIS and only helicopters for ASW woudl irk me. In case of a sudden sub attack that was not deteced before, the ship has no option to react quickly by mounting pressure on the sub with own combat means, and the helicopter, admittedly the superior choice once engaged, if not by chance being on station would takes some minutes to get up. These ships are expensive, I think one saved at the wrong end here.



Montrose will soon return to base for resupply, then it will again be one British ship on station only.



How many US ships are on staiton at any time, does anyone know? I do not mean total number of units, but only those being on station at any given time. The rule of three usually says one third of units on duty, one third preparing for mission in harbour, one third undergoing maintenance.

Instead of returning home to the UK after a six to nine-month deployment, Montrose is being stationed in Bahrain until 2022 to ensure a permanent presence and spare warships the lengthy passage to and from Britain, time which could be spent on patrol in the Middle East.

T45 is a decent European AAW FFG but does not shine in any other mission. While one ship can act as legal tripwire it is not going to be particularly usefull unless you begin running convoys.

Thats what I meant. Still, a ship in port is not on station. And it takes time to get back and forth. If such hijack attempts cannot be counterd by armed air/drone support of any kind, its only a question of time before a tanker will get hijacked for sure - and once Iranian troops are aboard, its theirs if not meeting superior armed resistence on board that drives them off again.

Last time they were lucky that the Montrose was close enough to reach the scene in time. Just a quarter of an hour or even ten minutes later, and the story maybe would be told differently today.

I tend to agree. Especially on the convoy thing.

Formally, T45 nevertheless is a DD. :D

Lets get some heavy machine guns and guided missile tripods on tankers and merchants - and the marines needed to operate them. Next have helicopter gunships on the ready (probably there are some somewhere already), and drones with long station time providing constant aerial surveillance.

DDG then if we are going all formal and American.



As to the armed troops onboard - then those become essentially RN ships and thus legitimate military targets if a war is declared. And you no longer need angry men on small boats to tinker with them - as Saudis found out land based AShMs work just fine.

The horse trading has begun.

Which then is no longer a hijacking attempt, but an open war. Needless to say the Americans would not let that pass without an according reaction, which would be punishing. Maybe not knocking Iran out (hard to do), but very punishing for sure.


Of course there is an escalation ladder beyond this, but that is already the case right now and makes no real different anymore. And its in Iran's hand how far they wish to go.

Precisely, the assets are already in place to meat out a swift reaction.

Iran possibly got another vessel as its wanted prey.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-ne...-1-2019-07-16/


The uS and the UK remains ilent on whethger they know what happened or not, it seems. If they know it not it shows what I was trying to point at: that with so small numbers in units on nstation you cannot have a sufficient surveillance and proteciton in that regionb, and that Iran only needs to wait for a better opportunity and timing to try again and have better luck.


There is a RG base nearby, and anothe rvessel has been captured by the RG in that area some time earlier. So the scenario that this tanker has been captured by the RG is absolutely realistic and possible.

Seems to be that no one claims to own the ship either which has previously not turned off it's tracking data in three months of travels in the same region.

I wonder who actually owns the ship then :hmmm:

Meanwhile, frigate HMS Kent will travel to the region from mid-September to bolster the Royal Navy's presence.