Former Navy commander: Ships in Iran's waters 'a severe failure'

[Lou Newton]

This whole affair has a really bad smell. These CB90 River command boats are built for river and bay areas and NOT designed for the open sea. They crossed 300 miles of open water to get where they were.

2nd they are very high speed boats ( 45 knots, and should be able to run from any Iranian ship.

3rd they have two engines and two drives. I find it IMPOSSIBLE for me to believe that BOTH engines failed in BOTH boats. If both engines failed in one boat ( a highly rare thing to happen ) the other boat could have towed it to safe waters.

4th - with today's global location systems it is IMPOSSIBLE to not know where you are.

5th - Obama put these men in extreme danger and humiliation for his political purposes. This was a set up that Iran agreed to. Iran was to capture and release the men so that Kerry could brag about how much better our relations with Iran were.

6th - Of course Iran is easier to get alone with after we Kerry has surrendered to them.


Former Navy commander: Ships in Iran's waters 'a severe failure'



By Ryan Browne and Jennifer Rizzo, CNN

Updated 7:39 PM ET, Wed January 13, 2016 | Video Source: CNN

Rouhani: 'Everyone has accepted' Assad must stay for now







Iran's Supreme Leader slams 'arrogant' U.S.







Mike Huckabee defends Holocaust reference on Iran deal







Sparks fly as Kerry sells Iran deal to congress







Brother of American journalist held in Iran speaks out







Kerry on Iran talks: It felt like 'Groundhog Day'







Friend: Detained Marine should've been released







U.S. to Iran: Release detained Americans







Hillary Clinton on Iran through the years







President Obama vs. Congress on Iran deal







'Death to Israel' chanted at al-Quds day in Iran







The U.S. and Iran through the years







Iran's mistrust of the U.S.





Now Playing

Ten U.S. sailors captured by Iran now free






Officials: Iran expected to release U.S. sailors






Pelosi: Sailors' release proves effective Iran negotiations






Senator ties Iran nuclear deal to detained sailors






Iran seizes U.S. Navy boats, detains 10 sailors







Zakaria: Supporting Saudi Arabia 'a double-edged sword'







Iranian rocket fired close to U.S. ship







Iranians hacked into New York dam







Iranians prepare for sanctions to end







Iranian-American businessman arrested in Tehran







Iran's supreme leader: Israel won't exist in 25 years







Iranian President calls for U.S. prisoner exchange







Official: Iran warship points weapon at U.S. helicopter







Rouhani: 'Everyone has accepted' Assad must stay for now







Iran's Supreme Leader slams 'arrogant' U.S.







Mike Huckabee defends Holocaust reference on Iran deal







Sparks fly as Kerry sells Iran deal to congress







Brother of American journalist held in Iran speaks out







Kerry on Iran talks: It felt like 'Groundhog Day'







Friend: Detained Marine should've been released







U.S. to Iran: Release detained Americans







Hillary Clinton on Iran through the years







President Obama vs. Congress on Iran deal







'Death to Israel' chanted at al-Quds day in Iran







The U.S. and Iran through the years







Iran's mistrust of the U.S.






Ten U.S. sailors captured by Iran now free






Officials: Iran expected to release U.S. sailors






Pelosi: Sailors' release proves effective Iran negotiations






Senator ties Iran nuclear deal to detained sailors






Iran seizes U.S. Navy boats, detains 10 sailors







Zakaria: Supporting Saudi Arabia 'a double-edged sword'







Iranian rocket fired close to U.S. ship







Iranians hacked into New York dam







Iranians prepare for sanctions to end







Iranian-American businessman arrested in Tehran







Iran's supreme leader: Israel won't exist in 25 years







Iranian President calls for U.S. prisoner exchange







Official: Iran warship points weapon at U.S. helicopter
















Story highlights

• The retired officer, Chris Harmer, slammed the Navy's actions leading up to the ships' capture
• It is not yet clear why the sailors, who were released by Iran Wednesday morning, were in Iranian waters

Washington (CNN)The capture of two navy ships in Iranian territorial waters represented "a severe failure by somebody," according to a former Navy commander once stationed in Bahrain.

The retired officer, Chris Harmer, slammed the Navy's actions leading up to the ships' capture, saying, "Either the naval leadership put these sailors in an impossible situation or the sailors are professionally incompetent."RELATED: Video shows American sailor apologizing for Iran incident
It is not yet clear why the sailors, who were released by Iran Wednesday morning, were in Iranian waters. The Pentagon will be investigating to determine what happened.
Harmer, though, said that there was "no reason for a small vessel to be out that far and especially without escorting ships around it."





18 photos: The U.S. Navy's riverine command boats















































































































































































































































































































































































































The two small craft seized are called riverine command boats and are designed to operate in rivers and shallower coastal or littoral waters. The vessels were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain and were sailing near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
"The Navy has to explain why you have small ships transiting 300 miles of open ocean," said Harmer, who was once deputy director of future operations at the Navy's Fifth Fleet and now at the Institute for the Study of War.
The Pentagon declined a request to respond to Harmer's criticism.
Former Lt. Col Rick Francona said that the boats could yield intelligence for the Iranians.
"The two boats were small patrol boats, but may still have some intelligence value," said Francona, a CNN military analyst. He noted, "There are always maps, charts, documents, communications gear."
READ: 10 U.S. sailors detained by Iran freed
Still, he said the risk posed wasn't great, even if Iran was likely to mine it for as much information as possible.
"The vessels themselves may be of interest, but they certainly are not classified," he said.
"In terms of the electronics the sailors could easily disable the electronic and classified information with a few key strokes," according to Harmer. "I doubt the Iranians will be able to get any significant classified information. If they are able to, that would be another big failure."
The boats, also known as CB 90s, were designed by the Swedish company Dockstavarvet and manufactured by the U.S. company SAFE Boats.
The company's specifications say the vessels are nearly 15 meters long, capable of carrying up to 20 personnel, and can travel up to 45 knots. The CB 90's armaments can include 50 caliber machineguns and GAU-19 mini-guns.

[Baruch]

Thank you for posting this, Lou. This smelled very fishy even before I knew any of the details. Iran could have blown this up into a very ugly international incident, but they did not. A PR stunt makes sense.

[Lou Newton]

Thank you for posting this, Lou. This smelled very fishy even before I knew any of the details. Iran could have blown this up into a very ugly international incident, but they did not. A PR stunt makes sense.

It sure does. In fact it is the only thing that does make sense to me right now.

Plus the fact that they have changed their story several times already. When no one could believe that four engines went bad on that day, they made other excuses.

[Lou Newton]

Humiliated By Iran: How Did The Navy Let It Happen?

164 Comments
01/14/2016 06:37 PM ET

• • in[COLOR=#FFFFFF !important]Share

• Email
• Print
• Reprints
• Comment

[/COLOR]

Swedish-designed Combat Boat 90. View Enlarged Image

Weakness: How can an advanced, ultra-agile U.S. combat boat suffer a "navigation error" that leads to a terrorist state capturing its sailors? Tehran just revealed military ineptitude warranting a congressional probe.
The Swedish-designed Combat Boat 90 can make the sharpest of turns at high speed, stop nearly on a dime, maneuver like magic and, with its Rolls-Royce jet-propulsion system, can speed along at over 45 miles an hour in rivers and shallow coastlines while transporting 18 amphibious troops.
But what good is any of that if it falls into enemy hands?
There is something fishy about how such a high-tech U.S. craft can "stray accidentally into Iranian waters due to a navigation error," as Defense Secretary Ash Carter described it on Thursday to Univision. The Pentagon had previously claimed engine trouble for an incident that's humiliated the U.S., as Iranian video showed to the world 10 American sailors on their knees at gunpoint.
A retired operations commander for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Christopher Harmer, told CNN the capture constituted "a severe failure," charging that "either the naval leadership put these sailors in an impossible situation, or the sailors are professionally incompetent." Harmer has researched the increased lethality of Iran's submarine fleet for the Institute for the Study of War.
That one of the sailors would appear in an Iranian video apologizing may have actually violated the military's Code of Conduct, which requires that a detainee give name, rank, serial number and age, but "evade answering further questions" and "make no oral or written statements disloyal" to his country "and its allies or harmful to their cause."
Harmer told the Washington Times, "the U.S. Navy looks extraordinarily incompetent. ... In its ability to transit boats without violating Iranian waters, they look incompetent to know how to deal with a mechanical malfunction, and now that they've been taken into custody, they're apologizing."
Harmer told CNN there was "no reason for a small vessel to be out that far and especially without escorting ships around it," and "the Navy has to explain why you have small ships transiting 300 miles of open ocean."
Iran claims its Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the CB90's GPS gear and that it revealed U.S. espionage. As reported in Defense News, House Armed Services Committee member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine who served in the Iraq War, claimed there was no way the Iran military "didn't reverse engineer, or look at and copy everything that they possibly could" of the two commandeered boats' high-tech equipment.
In the midst of this disaster did Secretary of State John Kerry make another bad deal with Tehran, following last year's nuclear pact, to get the sailors released swiftly?
All of this warrants a high-profile congressional investigation. Sailors and valuable equipment get captured, are humiliated on video, and finally one ends up making a statement that serves terrorist propaganda purposes.
"Semper Fortis" — always strong — hardly describes what this incident reveals about the U.S. Navy after seven years of Barack Obama.





Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editor...#ixzz3xNCudmeI
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

[Lou Newton]

If this is true, it is truly terrifying to think that Iran may be able to control our nuclear missiles.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-story-you-arent-being-told-about-iran-capturing-two-american-vessels/212937/

The Story You Aren’t Being Told About Iran Capturing Two American Vessels





The most important takeaway from this incident is to remember the high-tech military of the United States has an exposed vulnerability. It’s a vulnerability that was exploited by Iran.
By Justin King @Justinkingnews | January 20, 2016

• 
• 
• 

• 

This frame grab from Jan. 12, 2016, video by the IRIB News Agency shows the detention of U.S. Navy sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf. (IRIB / AP)

Tehran, Iran – The airwaves in the United States were filled with images of sailors on their knees while a US Navy vessel was searched. Unjustified outrage swept the nation. The US Secretary of Defense blamed the incident on a simple navigation error, however a chain of events leading back to 2009 demonstrates the facts are a little more complicated than first appear. The chain of events leads defense analysts to one unmistakable conclusion: Iran has the ability to disrupt US GPS systems. For western military analysts, the thought is terrifying. The West uses GPS for much more than replacing a compass and a map.
In 2009, Lockheed Martin’s RQ-170 Sentinel showed up on a runway in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The aircraft entered service two years earlier, but the public was unaware. The bat wing styled drone is reminiscent of the Stealth Bomber. The similarities extend beyond the cosmetic, and the RQ-170 is the premier spy drone in the US fleet. This was the drone used to map out Bin Laden’s compound. It was tasked with keeping an eye on Iran’s nuclear program. That’s when things got interesting.
On December 4, 2011 a RQ-170 Sentinel crashed into the Iranian countryside. Iran claimed its electronic warfare unit brought the plane down. The US Department of Defense stated the aircraft was flying over western Afghanistan and crashed near or in Iran. The aircraft was 140 miles inside Iran’s borders. The west laughed at the idea of Iran’s military obtaining the capability to down one the most sophisticated drones in the world. One military official remarked it was like:
“dropping a Ferrari into an ox-cart technology culture.”
They probably shouldn’t have been so quick to laugh. It appears the Iranians didn’t just down the aircraft, they took control of it mid-flight. Dailytech.com explained:
“Using its knowledge of the frequency, the engineer claims, Iran intiated its ‘electronic ambush’ by jamming the bird’s communications frequencies, forcing it into auto-pilot. States the source, ‘By putting noise [jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain.’
“The team then use a technique known as ‘spoofing’ — sending a false signal for the purposes of obfuscation or other gain. In this case the signal in questions was the GPS feed, which the drone commonly acquires from several satellites. By spoofing the GPS feed, Iranian officials were able to convince it that it was in Afghanistan, close to its home base. At that point the drone’s autopilot functionality kicked in and triggered the landing. But rather than landing at a U.S. military base, the drone victim instead found itself captured at an Iranian military landing zone.
“Spoofing the GPS is a clever method, as it allows hackers to ‘land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the [encrypted] remote-control signals and communications.’
“While the technique did not require sophistication from a cryptography perspective, it was not entirely trivial, either, as it required precise calculations to be made to give the drone the proper forged distance and find and fine an appropriate altitude landing strip to make sure the drone landed as it did in Afghanistan. The Iranian engineers knew the details of the landing site, because the drone had been confirmed in grainy photos to be landing at a base in Khandar, Afghanistan.
“Despite the careful calculations, the drone still sustained a dent in its wing and underbody (though it did not have the usual signs of a high-speed collision). During its press conferences, the Iranian military covered this damage with anti-American banners.
“The engineer explained this damage commenting, ‘If you look at the location where we made it land and the bird’s home base, they both have [almost] the same altitude. There was a problem [of a few meters] with the exact altitude so the bird’s underbelly was damaged in landing; that’s why it was covered in the broadcast footage.’The approach echoes an October security conference presentation[PDF] in Chicago, in which ETH Zurich researchers laid out how to use interference and GPS spoofing to more gently down a drone.”
The Aviationist agreed and suggested the US “reconsider their drones’ equipment, countermeasures and combat operation procedures as well as Iran’s electronic and cyberwarfare capabilities.” It should be noted the “ox-cart technology culture” has since reverse engineered the drone.
The gross underestimation of the Iranian military led to the recent incident in the Persian Gulf. The story being repeated in the western press is one of ten sailors getting lost and ending up in Iranian territorial waters (if the outlet mentions that part). According to Secretary of Defense Carter, “All the contributing factors to that we don’t know yet, and we’re still talking to those folks, and we’ll find out more … but they were clearly out of the position that they intended to be in.”
Two boats lost their GPS abilities at the same time, and the Secretary of Defense isn’t sure what happened? A few US outlets, such as the L.A. Times, reported on the other malfunctions during the incident. Both boats lost radio communication and all other communication during the incident. A single vehicle losing its GPS abilities can happen. It’s rare, but it can happen. Two vehicles losing the systems at the same time borders on implausible, but there is still a possibility of it occurring through Murphy’s Law. The loss of all communication equipment and GPS systems on two boats at the same time means one thing: electronic warfare.
The unwillingness to admit the US military has spent billions on a system that has apparently been defeated by Iran is the most likely culprit behind the western media’s attempt to focus on the “ill treatment” of US sailors. Even the L.A. Times, which was willing to report on the communications failures, placed the following quote in a bold offset in the same article:
“The way those sailors were treated was entirely inappropriate. … The U.S. Navy would never demand Iranian sailors hold their hands on their heads and coerce a confession.– James Stavridis, retired U.S. admiral”
The U.S. Navy’s installation at Guantanamo Bay has been the scene of the worst treatment of detainees by the US government in decades. The sailors captured by Iran were not waterboarded, deprived of sleep or food, sexually abused, or otherwise tortured. The United States does not have the moral authority to object to how another nation treats detainees.
The burning question now relates to whether or not Iran’s actions constitute an attack on the U.S. It’s not a simple question. Electronic warfare and cyber warfare have become common place. It is also worth noting the two US vessels were within just a few miles of Farsi Island. Farsi Island is the home of the Revolutionary Guards’ Navy (RGN). The RGN is Iran’s maritime unconventional warfare force. For comparison, imagine a scenario in which a nation that has attacked a US civilian airliner and whose political leaders have constantly threatened war sent two boats to pass extraordinarily close to the home base of a U.S. Seal Team. The reader can decide if Iran’s actions were appropriate.
The most important takeaway from this incident is to remember the high-tech military of the United States has an exposed vulnerability. It’s a vulnerability that was exploited by Iran. Iran is not a nation many in military circles would see as technologically advanced. The drone warfare system has a fatal flaw. If Iran can exploit it, China and Russia certainly can. Even North Korea has been able to successfully disrupt the GPS system. Beyond simple navigation, the U.S. employs the GPS system to guide missiles. If the Iranians can jam and spoof their way into controlling a drone, it isn’t a huge leap to believe have the ability, or will soon have the ability, to do the same thing with guided missiles.
It should be noted that GPS jammers are available on the civilian market and have been detected in use inside the United Kingdom. This revelation may also be the reasoning behind the U.S. decision to require drone operators to register their aircraft.

This content first appeared at the Fifth Column News

[Baruch]

Hm. Why would Iran tip its hand? If it can do this, it's a valuable advantage to keep secret until it is needed.

Thanks for posting, Lou.

[Lou Newton]

Hm. Why would Iran tip its hand? If it can do this, it's a valuable advantage to keep secret until it is needed.

Thanks for posting, Lou.

Most governments have more to fear from forces inside their own nation than from foreign powers.

The USSR could have tried to keep the H bomb a secret, but chose instead to tell the whole world. They used this to bully the world and to show the people that Germany would not kill 10's of millions of Russians again. But they made the mistake of spending so much on defense that the people were starving and the communist were thrown out.

The Shaw of Iran was not brought down by foreign powers but by forces inside Iran. Certainly it would seem wise not to broadcast to the world that Iran wants to destroy Israel and the US, but they do this constantly. This is to appease the powers that brought the Shaw down.

While it would be valuable to keep this ability secret, it may be even more valuable for them to find out themselves if this whole scheme works.

Plus so many people in the US are so arrogant and ignorant that most would still not believe that Iran might be able to do this.

LOOK AT THESE FACTS:

Iran has put FOUR satellites into orbit. This proves they can launch a nuclear bomb to anywhere in the world, OR they are very close to being able to do so.

Iran has said over and over that they will destroy the US, to many times to count.

Yet Obama and Kerry take the sanctions off of Iran. These sanctions where the main thing stopping Iran from getting the bomb. They could not sell their oil and so their money was cut off. Their economy was so bad that the people were close to throwing the radical Muslims out. That would have been good for Iran and the world.

The people of the US were so ignorant and stupid that many supported this treaty with Iran. Iran will now have a bomb very soon.

The people of the US should have been marching in the streets demanding Obama's and Kerry's head. If they do not object to Iran getting the bomb, certainly no one will take notice of Iran hijacking a drone.

The leaders of Iran had to get the sanctions removed to stay in power of Iran. When the people of Iran are ready to revolt, the leaders care little of what the rest of the world thinks.

As far as the people of the US:

God blessed this nation above every other nation in the world. Yet it turned from the God that blessed it.

Romans 1
God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.