If you really want to understand what it means when the Iranian Navy is reported to be steaming at full speed toward America, I’d advise looking away from the somewhat hysterical main stream media. There is plenty to worry about over Iran, and certainly here in Israel we are worried, but their navy steaming across the Atlantic is not really much to get excited about.
Over at Liberty Unyielding my friend Cmdr Dyer (US Navy retired) has a tremendous piece explaining this. It needs to be read in full but here’s an extract:
It helps to appreciate what a major undertaking it is for a little frigate with no underway refueling capability to make this voyage. A U.S. Navy frigate, in company with a replenishment oiler, can go all the way from Mayport, Florida to the Persian Gulf without having to stop and refuel in a port. If necessary, the trip can be made in less than two weeks. It’s rarely done this way, but it can be. The Iranian navy, by contrast, literally does not have this capability.
And for the U.S. Navy, the frigate is the smallest and least capable of our escort combatants. If an Arleigh Burke destroyer is an Olympic freestyle medalist, the Oliver Hazard Perry frigate is a top-seeded NCAA swimmer. The Sabalan, in comparison, is currently dog-paddling around Africa – and will be on a short and unfamiliar, fuel-limited tether when she gets to the Caribbean. A heroic moment for her will be having her picture taken with Key West on the horizon in the background.
We should take Iran seriously, but not because her navy poses a threat to North America.
The rest of the piece goes on to consider the more serious implications of a video shown this weekend on Iranian TV. It’s the destruction of my home city. For all those of you still arguing over the semantics of translation and what it means when Iranians say they want to wipe Israel off the map, they do seem to be drawing you all a diagram.
Then there’s the wonderful video simulation of the Iranian attack on Israel, and on a U.S. carrier in the Persian Gulf (which is announced to be USS Abraham Lincoln, but more on that in a minute). This video was apparently broadcast on Iranian state TV. It’s hard to say which simulation is more humorous.
And while this video is no laughing matter, I can’t help but note that the first strike on Tel Aviv seems to be centred on the very branch of Bank Hapoalim in which I spend an undue amount of time as any of my Twitter or Facebook followers will attest.
