A group of 11 Iranian naval vessels aggressively approached a group of United States Navy forces in the Arabian Gulf.
The Navy released a statement on Wednesday describing the “unsafe” and “unprofessional” actions. The ships approached by the Iranian vessels were the U.S.S. Lewis B. Puller, U.S.S. Paul Hamilton, U.S.S. Firebolt, U.S.S. Sirocco, U.S.C.G.C. Wrangell, and U.S.C.G.C. Maui.
Rebecca Rebarich, a Navy spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet, said in the statement that the vessels, which are part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, “repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the U.S. vessels at extremely close range and high speeds.”
The Iranian vessels approached the Puller at about 50 yards and got within 10 yards of the Maui in what the Navy described as “dangerous and harassing approaches” of the six U.S. Navy ships.
“U.S. crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices, but received no response from the IRGCN,” the statement said.
“After approximately one hour, the IRGCN vessels responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio queries, then maneuvered away from the U.S. ships and opened distance between them,” the statement continued.
The dangerous approaches came the same day as a Russian aircraft intercepted a U.S. plane at high speeds for 42 minutes.
