【Military Sub-Plane】Author: Le Le
On August 31, Iran's Tasnim News Agency and the U.S. Naval Association website (USNI) both reported that on the evening of the 30th, the two naval ships had close contact at sea, and the Iranian navy, in the case of taking the lead in controlling the situation, failed to maintain its superiority due to limited levels, and was forced to give up the "booty" in hand. This somewhat familiar scene has made the domestic attention to this event a high degree of attention, and behind the Iranian Navy's not-so-ideal performance this time, there are indeed many things that can be changed.
▲ Information on events reported by the U.S. Navy
According to the reports of both sides, the development process of the whole thing is roughly that the unmanned combat unit under the US Navy's Fifth Fleet has recently dispatched the "Sailing Explorer" unmanned boat to the waters around Iran to carry out maritime intelligence gathering missions. The support ship Shahid Bazar, which is part of iran's Maritime Revolutionary Guard, found an Unmanned American boat during the patrol and subsequently cut off its control system, but the attempt to tow was unsuccessful. Subsequently, the U.S. Navy dispatched a high-speed armed patrol boat to the incident area, and an MH-60S "SeaHawk" carrier-based helicopter cooperated. Although Iran later mobilized a speedboat to support, it finally gave up the attempt to tow the unmanned boat after about 4 hours of confrontation, and the United States regained control of the unmanned boat, and the two sides disengaged.
▲ U.S. Navy equipped MH-60S "Seahawk" carrier-based helicopter
After the end of the matter, the United States and Iran have accused each other of violating international rules in order to gain the support of public opinion, which is a routine propaganda operation that occupies the position of public opinion. However, judging from the actions of the two sides to mobilize small tonnage combat boats to go, the sea area where the incident occurred should not belong to the far sea. Iranian media reports pointed out that the US Navy's unmanned boats carry high-performance cameras, radars and sensors to collect data in sensitive waters, affect the passage of waterways, and violate security agreements should not be too much error. By contrast, the U.S. Navy's statement afterwards that "the U.S. Navy will continue to operate wherever international law permits" has a conspicuous sense of wantonness.
▲ U.S. Navy equipped "Sailing Explorer" unmanned boat
Therefore, in the discussion of this incident, domestic public opinion often regards the US Navy as the initiator, which is relatively normal emotionally. However, this kind of international event is always based on the strength of both sides and the final result as an absolute indicator, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the first hand advantage, failed to consolidate the advantage, before the arrival of U.S. naval support to complete the drag operation and evacuate the incident area, is undoubtedly a tactical failure. From this point of view, although Iran tried its best to save its image in the public opinion propaganda afterwards, the entire operation really ended in failure, not only did not play a role in sabotaging the opponent's maritime intelligence gathering operation and "captured" the unmanned boat, but also showed the weakness of its weak maritime control ability in the eyes of the world.
▲ The Iranian Navy is heavily equipped with offshore missile boats
In fact, it is very normal for two maritime forces with discordant relations to send ships or aviation units to each other to carry out intelligence gathering and infiltration missions, and during the Cold War, the close contact between the United States and the Soviet Union around nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers was even more common. After the end of the Cold War, with the improvement of equipment level, this kind of operation began to use a large number of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned boats to complete the operation in a more stealthy way. As a combat force with no loss of aggressiveness, the Iranian armed forces have repeatedly intervened in tough ways in their contacts with US drones and unmanned boats. There was a famous American MQ-4A long-range drone shot down by Iran, the wreckage was displayed and humiliated, and the Iranian drone also took the opportunity to make great progress. Then in June this year, three high-speed armed boats from Iran came into contact with the U.S. Navy patrol ship at a distance of less than 100 meters. Overall, Iran's armed forces are not left to fend for themselves, but are limited by combat equipment and training levels, and in most cases they have not been able to gain the upper hand.
▲ The wreckage of the US-made MQ-4A drone shot down by Iran
In contrast, the frequency of the U.S. Navy's activities in the South China Sea is not low, and various unmanned boats and unmanned underwater vehicles are often used as maritime platforms for intelligence gathering tasks. However, unlike the embarrassment faced by Iran's maritime forces, the mainland has successfully organized a considerable conventional patrol and surveillance force in the South China Sea, and once it is found that extraterritorial maritime forces are trying to undermine our maritime rights and interests, they can often interfere and block at a faster speed. Even in some special cases, the opponent's intelligence gathering platform can be quickly transferred by effective means. In December 2016, the U.S. Navy's "Baudic" operating in the South China Sea was forcefully interfered with by our surveillance forces when it was released to collect information from unmanned underwater vehicles, and one of its unmanned underwater vehicles was taken away before the US side reacted, leaving only the stunned and unresponsive "Baudic" without reaction.
▲ The US military "Baudic" that attracted widespread attention at that time
More importantly, this situation is not unique, benefiting from the rapid development of domestic military surface ship equipment in recent years, a large number of 054A and 056A frigates carry out patrol tasks in the South China Sea and can quickly respond to unexpected situations. The auxiliary maritime forces with good scale and strong organizational strength have made the entire set of surveillance mechanisms extremely vital and have repeatedly gained the upper hand in similar incidents. In contrast, Iran's maritime power is not low in fighting spirit and has not completely given up on interfering with the U.S. Navy's operations, but equipment and tactics are its obvious shortcomings, which are where it needs to improve. The recent social media circulation that Iran provides drones for Russia in exchange for the way Russia launches satellites for Iran and provides Su-35S fighter jets is actually likely to become a model for Iran's cooperation with other countries.