1/18 As details emerge about last week's sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva (by anti-ship missiles, per U.S. and Ukrainian officials), let us recall lessons from the last time the U.S. Navy sank an enemy ship...34 years ago today. navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
2/18 By April 18, 1988, the U.S. had been escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the wartorn Persian Gulf for nearly two years. navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
3/18 On April 14, USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian naval mine. The explosion holed the frigate below the waterline and set its engineroom ablaze. Fighting fire and flood into the night, the crew beat the odds and saved their badly damaged ship. navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
4/18 The next day, a Navy EOD team found more mines floating nearby. The serial numbers matched those of mines captured aboard an Iranian barge the previous year. navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
5/18 Those mines, type M-08/39, remain a marvel of cost-effective weaponry. Designed in 1908 by the Imperial Russian Navy, they consist of a warhead and some primitive collision detectors buoyed with flotation voids and tethered to a weight.
6/18 With Iran identified as the culprit, the White House, Pentagon, and U.S. Navy mustered an aircraft carrier and several surface warships to retaliate. Operation Praying Mantis got underway at first light on April 18.navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
7/18 Just after 8 a.m., U.S. warships opened fire on two Iranian oil platforms in the Gulf. One caught fire immediately; the other was destroyed within a few hours by U.S. Marines who fast-roped on to set explosive charges.
8/18 About 12:15 p.m., a U.S. cruiser and two frigates were fired upon by Iran's Joshan gunboat, touching off the world's first missile duel between warships. At a distance of some 13 miles, Joshan launched a U.S.-made Harpoon sold to the Shah before the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
9/18 The U.S. ships turned their bows to the incoming missile, fired off radar-deceiving chaff, and emitted jamming signals. It passed harmlessly between two of the ships, taking Joshan's chances with it. usni.org/magazines/proc…
10/18 The cruiser Wainwright and frigate Simpson fired back five Standard missiles, all of which hit. After the frigate Bagley struck with its own Harpoon, the U.S. ships finished off the Joshan with naval gunfire.
11/18 Later in the day, A-6 Intruders flying from the USS Enterprise sank Iran's Sahand frigate, along with a few armed Boghammar boats. U.S. ships and aircraft also damaged the frigate Sabalan before the White House ordered a ceasefire.
12/18 There are several enduring lessons to be drawn from Operation Praying Mantis. One is that training matters. The Joshan's captain displayed more bravado than technical or tactical expertise, while the Roberts would have sunk were its crew less well-prepared.
13/18 Another is that a weaker force can use cheap weapons to do outsized damage to even a far superior enemy. The mine that nearly sank the Roberts probably cost a thousand bucks; the shipyard repair bill alone was $89.5 million (some $200 million today). navybook.com/no-higher-hono…
14/18 Thirty-four years later, Operation Praying Mantis remains the U.S. Navy's largest surface battle since WWII. And since Simpson's retirement in 2015, no active U.S. warship has ever sunk an enemy ship. (Except the 225-year-old USS Constitution.)
15/18 For further reading, start with "The Surface View: Operation Praying Mantis" by Capt. J. B. Perkins III, who helped plan and execute Praying Mantis: usni.org/magazines/proc…
16/18 For a wider view, see "The Twilight War" by David Crist, "Decision at Sea" by Craig Symonds, "Tanker War" by Lee Zatarain, "Inside the Danger Zone" by Harold Wise...
17/18 And, well, my own "No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf" (Naval Institute Press, 2006), which has a foreword by Adm. William Crowe and has been (though is not currently) on the CNO's Professional Reading List. amazon.com/No-Higher-Hono…
18/18 And finally, here's a good look at how Ukraine might be able to put mines and anti-ship missiles to use in the Black Sea: "An Anti-Access Denial Strategy for Ukraine" by Lt. Cmdr. Jason Lancaster: cimsec.org/an-anti-access…
And here’s a piece on defending Taiwan that highlights the need for naval mines (including air-dropped Quickstrikes, "underappreciated weapons can glide 40 nautical miles with precision in order to seal off maritime passages”): warontherocks.com/2022/04/eight-… @AndrewSErickson
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