5th Fleet Focus: IRGC Troublemaking with British, Australian Frigates

As we have mentioned many times on the blog in the past, events are taking place at sea in the Middle East that are often not reported in the media. The 5th Fleet in particular keeps information very close, and rarely does it see the light of day without a political motivation, and even then it is some source in Washington leaking information, not 5th Fleet. Other nations tend to follow a similar policy.

This particular incident is flying pretty low under the radar. The IRGC appears to be still playing its tricks in the Persian Gulf, but with tensions with Iran very high it is noteworthy this report went unreported until now. Note the timing, this was during the recent missile tests by Iran, which coincided with major Iranian Navy maneuvers* in the Strait of Hormuz. Guess these IRGC dudes got left behind, and had nothing better to do.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats menaced the Devonport-based warship HMS Chatham as weapons tests ordered by the Tehran regime to deter strikes on its nuclear weapons facilities raised tension in the Gulf, it can be revealed.

The encounter occurred as the Type-22 frigate patrolled the same waters where sister ship HMS Cornwall suffered the kidnapping and detention of 15 of her sailors and Marines in spring 2007.

Some 16 months on, Westcountry servicemen and women are still going eyeball-to-eyeball with the Revolutionary Guards on an almost daily basis. In last week's incident, Iranian speedboats came within a few hundred yards of the frigate as the latter patrolled on the edge of Iraqi territorial waters.

At the same time, the Australian frigate HMAS Stuart, which was heading north to relieve the Chatham, was also approached aggressively by Revolutionary Guard vessels.

It all appeared to be part of a co-ordinated effort at sabre-rattling by Tehran, which also allegedly tested new ship-killing torpedoes as well as land-based ballistic missiles.

Until today, the Chatham and Stuart incidents were unreported.

There are too many ignorant people in America who refuse to believe the Iranian IRGC is a menace in the Persian Gulf, intentionally intimidating commercial traffic, and sometimes causing some tense moments with coalition forces. These guys do not have a reputation of providing a service to the security of the Persian Gulf. It is important however to distinguish between the IRGC and the Iranian Navy, they are not one in the same. No one in the region confuses the two, no one discussing events of that region from our armchairs should ever confuse the two either.

This particular comment caught our attention, because in the future when all this nonsense settles down and books get written about this time period in the Persian Gulf, we expect this will be a common theme.

“There are misunderstandings between ourselves and, whenever they occur, we aim to communicate with the Revolutionary Guards to clarify the situation,” revealed one British naval officer in the northern Gulf. “Unfortunately nine times out of 10 they ignore us.”

When the Revolutionary Guard Corps do respond, it is often to tell coalition naval forces to “stick it”.

Coalition forces barely spend any time, or more accurately put, few coalition ships have any time to dedicate to the piracy issues off the Horn of Africa, and the US Navy in particular doesn't have any time to focus on piracy. There are many reasons, but we highlight without giving specific examples, that while piracy may be stealing the headlines of the regions maritime troubles, there are much bigger, more relevant issues happening behind the scenes, but almost always out of view from the media perspective. Just because it isn't reported in the news doesn't mean it isn't happening, rather it is a strategic decision by 5th Fleet, or perhaps CENTCOM, not to add to the political rhetoric when it serves no military purpose. This is not a new policy, it has been in place since Adm. Fallon took over CENTCOM, and continues to this day.

In a time of high tensions, just as the price of oil starts to drop, and particularly at a time when diplomacy is actually getting its day, media reports like this are counterproductive to the process. It might explain why almost no one in the media is reporting the incidents.

With that said, if diplomacy breaks down and rhetoric of war picks up again, if the US Navy or coalition forces as a whole is asked to produce information regarding incidents with the IRGC in the Persian Gulf, expect a very long list of incidents no one has heard any details of. It really is amazing coalition naval forces haven't sank any IRGC boats in the Persian Gulf, because it isn't for a lack of reasons to take defensive action or opportunities to apply steel down range.


* That is an interesting read, it ran in an Iranian paper on July 12th and we had our Farsi guy confirm it is a good translation.